Back in the land of the blogg - January 2016

Well in spite of good intentions to get back to my blog in October 2015 events conspired to prevent this - the old saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" certainly applies.

2015 was an interesting and at times difficult year. My mother passed away suddenly on 17 March, St Patrick's day - appropriate don't you think as her name was Patricia. Her passing caused me to stop and think about life in general. I mean, my mother had obviously been there all of my life. Most of this time we were close but as many mothers and daughters do drift apart at times, however, we were close for all of this century. I phoned Mum every day around 4:30 pm and we both looked forward to our chats - nothing earth shattering just day to day minutiae. 

Then in June, I needed more surgery on my troublesome hip - another visit to my favourite hospital! Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful and to date, I have dislocated the hip five times since June. The last two events on the 12th December and New Year's Eve afternoon, so I started the 2016 year in the hospital. Does this auger well for 2016 you might ask? Well, I intend to have a wonderful 2016 and get things back on track - the power of positive thinking perhaps?

To end the year, my stepfather Raymond passed away at 3:00 am Christmas morning. He had been in care since the death of my mother in March and with his dementia growing ever more obvious he had lost the will to live. He is now buried next to my mother at the Allambe Memorial Park in Nerang.

So with the move to premises of the Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ) in November and the troublesome hip dislocations the last few months of 2015 need to disappear into the haze of time. The good news is that members are enjoying the new premises at Wishart and it certainly is a fresh start to 2016. GSQ is planning an official opening and family history fair on Saturday 6 February and any genie friends in Brisbane are invited - do come along and see for yourself the new premises and enjoy a sausage sizzle and secondhand book sale as well as interesting information tables and more.

I also started a One Name Study of my Proverbs family, starting in Barbados then moving to the United States, England, New Zealand and Australia. I am finding the study fascinating and am just starting to sort through data and fleshing out interesting tidbits. If anyone has info on the Proverbs family please get in touch.

So here we are at the start of 2016, I have looked at Dear Myrtle's organisation posts and will try and do some of them - I certainly do need to clear some space - both physically and in my head! I am going into hospital in late February for more surgery and hope to have my new laptop up and running by them so that I can continue my research from the hospital bed. My favourite hospital now has wifi so that makes it easier to keep connected. 

Stay tuned in 2016.