Letters to Ann

Dear Ann,

I really didn’t do anything over Easter apart from having the girls to lunch & going to Fennels Bay market. My favourite eating place was closed so I simply stayed home on Easter Monday & did a bit of tidying up that was overdue: you know how it is!

I spend a bit of each day sitting in my little wooden rocking chair, which is just outside my lounge room window under the sun. So because Micheles Patisserie was closed for two days I occupied myself at home, deciding that I would write three letters that I have needed to write for some weeks, but had been had been putting them off until I had time to think of what I needed to write, as they were not the ordinary type of letter.

On a visit a few weeks ago to my GP, Dr. Bourke to find out the results of some blood tests he had requested, he was so pleased with the results that he said I should write to my previous doctors & tell them how I was & what I am doing.

He suggested Dr. Relic who nursed me through four & half years of agonising itch before I was sent to hospital & the cancer scare, which went away when they cured my thrush.

He also suggested a letter to Dr. Walsh my cancer specialist & Dr. O’Brien my oncologist. I think Dr. Bourke is a bit pleased with the fact that I don’t sit at home feeling sorry for myself & is also pleased with my activities, which he is well aware of.

So I thought about it & guessed that Dr. Bourke wanted me to give these doctors some positive results that I imagine would give doctors a bit of a lift. So after putting it off for too long I sat down on Easter Monday to write the letters, which took me most of the afternoon.

I will share with you the letter I sent to Dr. Relic. I modified the other two to suit the need. This is what I wrote:

Dear Dr. Relic,

At a recent consultation with my GP, Dr. Syd Bourke, this good man suggested I write to let you know how I am & what I am doing. Dr. Bourke is aware of all my activities & I think he is pleased with the fact that I am not sitting at home bored to tears with nothing to do. The family brought Hammond Care in to do my housework & my garden when I was diagnosed with Mycosis Fungoids, hence I have seven days a week in which to do nothing,

In case you don’t remember me, which I doubt as I was on your doorstep often enough, he also suggested I send a recent photo with this letter. His suggestion for me to write was after he had just received results of a blood test he had requested & in his words he said “blood was excellent, liver & kidneys also excellent”.

In connection with how I feel I can only say that for at least the past eighteen months I have felt extremely well. I think it would be fair to use the expression ‘tip top’ for an aging 87 year old. In addition to that my friends & acquaintances have repeatedly mentioned how well I look, particularly my skin. I just feel so good within myself.

I must add this though that I had a great incentive which I should mention. After I came out of hospital in 2015 my son, David, really thought that I would not live so one evening in the presence of my 22 year old grand daughter, Charley, he made an offer. He said if I felt well enough he would pay for Charley to accompany me, as my carer, to Los Angeles for a six week holiday from November to end of December – that was in 2015.

This was to visit my other son, Philip, who lives there. I seemed to get well at a fast rate! It was a wonderful offer from David & it certainly paid dividends.

I continued on my road to good health & in August, 2016 made approximately 400 Christmas puddings, some for gifts, some for sale to friends & others. Due to a spate of events which happened during 2016 I went to four monthly markets with my puddings just prior to Christmas & had a tremendous response.

Also the kindness of fellow stall holders & the Lions Club was outstanding (not sure whether my age sponsored this or not) but I went up to my son’s place after my first market for dinner & he was quite bemused with my elated sprits. He said he had never seen me quite so elated & was amazed at what it was doing for me, as he had been sure that in 2015 that I would not survive.

The Lions Club wanted me to keep coming this year so I have been making ten batches of my popular Curried Zucchini Relish each month as it’s difficult to sell even th best Christmas Pudding in January. So I bought myself a gazebo, two good folding tables & drive to my venues at Fennels Bay & Warners Bay markets & sell approximately 60 jars of relish each time. It’s not about money, it’s the challenge & activity I am enjoying so much.

I have always enjoyed both & this has given me a new lease of life. Plus it is not difficult to sit out in the nice weather & be with nice people. I have everyone I know keeping their jars for me instead of recycling them as I use over 120 per month.

In addition to this I am back line dancing for two hours every Friday, which is really being active as most of it requires a bit more energy than a waltz. At one stage I thought I would never get back to this activity & missed it all through 2015, but its good to be back now.

I also continue to write my Letters to Ann which I have been writing for ten years. This covers just about the story of my life as it goes on. I started this project after my dear friend, Ann, passed away.

I had been writing to her in Los Angeles frequently. She kept all my letters leaving them to her son. Ultimately my son received them, suggested I keep writing as I was enjoying it & he started a blog for me.

This resulted, to my amazement, in receiving two volumes of my letters in book form from under the Christmas tree the following Christmas. I now have fourteen volumes & hopefully expect two more from under the tree this next Christmas. Whatever I write for the year Philip has them put into book form for me.

Dr. Bourke is not aware of the latter or he may not have made the suggestion of writing to you! However, when he suggested I write to my previous doctors I thought it may bring a nice story into your life with a happy ending. You must see & hear enough of sadness.

I can never thank you enough Dr Relic for the way you sat beside me all the way through those four & half years. You bent over backwards for me & I can never thank you enough. You are not only a wonderful doctor, you are also a very compassionate person which I like to call an angel from God.

Many, many thanks for all you did for me. I write this with fond affection & great respect.

God Bless, My Very Kindest Regards, Dawn.

I also sent to Dr. Relic a kilo pudding for him because I know how much he loves them. I will give one to the other two doctors when I have a check up during the year.

So that’s how I spent Easter Monday & I felt good about it. So at 5.30 p.m. I did what I usually do & got myself ready for bed, sat in front of the tele with a cool glass of good white wine to watch a favourite programme.

Would you believe that just after 6 p.m., after I had eaten my left over salmon patties, the phone rang. It was David to ask what I was doing here & then it hit me. I had had such a busy week before Easter & my mind on other things that I had forgotten the fortnightly family dinner!

Needless to say I missed out on the fabulous Bruschetta which David serves pre dinner & also the melt in the mouth fillet steak he serves for dinner! I survived & they missed me for sure!!

Love you dear heart. Dawn. X O X O

Dear Ann,

What a great Easter it was with the sun shining down on us for the whole of the time. It’s the first Easter in many years when we have seen this happen. It is usually thunder, lightning & rain.

I get the feeling that this is rightly so & a reminder how angry God was at what they did to His Son. It was a sad time but then we get the sunshine to remind us all is well, He lives again & is always with us. I always feel a bit subdued at Easter because of the occasion, but I did really enjoy the sun this year. I think everybody enjoyed – it was lovely.

Michele’s Patisserie was closed for Friday, Sunday & Monday & only open on Sat morning. This has never happened before to that extent, but I can’t blame Rachelle for taking full advantage of the holidays now that little Spencer James has been added to the family. I don’t think I have told you about that.

He was born on 18th March & his Mum kept working at the patisserie until the day before his birth. She was back on the job three days later looking trim, taut & terrific, with no excess fat – it was all baby. What a great girl she is.

So I got a look at little Spencer when he was only four days old lying in his pram looking around his new world & waving his tiny arms about. He is a perfect little baby. I think all of Rachelle’s patrons are welcoming this newcomer into the cafe family at the Patisserie as most of the patrons brought this event into their own lives throughout the preceding months.

Judy, Pat & I had gone shopping the week before to purchase a nice gift for when the new baby arrived as we have been patrons there for many years & feeling part of the event. We sat Rachelle down with us one day & presented her with a very lovely embroidered baby towel set & a little thingamejig for baby to hold & play with or put in his mouth & suck his thumb while he holds the cloth attached to it! I must say that little Spencer is absolutely the most gorgeous baby, we had forgotten how beautiful a new baby is.

Gift for Rachele’s coming baby from the three of us.

I really missed my favourite cafe not being open, but on Easter Sunday I had my Fennels Bay market to attend to, so I trotted off to see where I would be put on this gorgeous sunny warm day. Mr. Lions Man gave me a site to go to, but I missed it, ended up at another site.

I have had five different sites the five times I have been taking part. I queried another Lions Club member as to whether I was at the right site. He mentioned the name of another lass who usually has that particular one but as it looked unlikely she was going to turn up at that late hour (7 a.m.) & I could stay there if I wished.

This suited me fine, on the spot & onto job in hand so he & another member put up my gazebo for me. I was unpacked & ready when the first customer came past at 7.30 & I sold the first jar of relish for the day. With the sun & all, the day looked promising with a $4 sale to start with.

I wasn’t wrong about the day, as I had tucked away 89 times that amount by the time the market ended at 12.30 p.m. Each time I am there the sales escalate, which is a nice feeling after all my hard work, but what I love most is the challenge & the activity, it gives me a reason to get up in the morning.

During the morning a nice looking youngish man came along with a purpose. He didn’t want a sample to taste, but asked could he take a photograph. I didn’t mind, but asked why as I didn’t want my picture on the page of the daily paper selling relish at a market!

He belonged to a camera club who had been given the challenge of presenting some unusual photographs so he turned my large jar of relish around so the label wasn’t in view & took a close up snap. My relish does really look good in their little glass homes. I wish now I had asked him to send me a copy, but I was slow on the uptake. However, it was an interesting little interlude.

Then when the market slowed down & it was time to pack up, another nice thing happened to me. I had been wedged between two elderly chaps selling old tools, fishing lines, that kind of thing, & they seemed very pleased to have a young lady next to them!

They kept talking to me on & off & indeed the one on my right hand side seemed eager to talk to anyone as he would wander away from his site for a chat, sometimes missing out on a prospective sale. He was quite chatty & told me he was 89 years of age. I wasn’t going to let him have it all his way, so I told him I was in my 88th year!

Anyway when I started packing up he said when I was ready he & the chap on the other side would take down my gazebo for me. This they did, God bless them & even folded up the canopy like a housemaid would fold up a linen sheet.

When this was all done, one of them (not the chatty one) said that he was very definitely going to ring the Lions Club & ask that I have that spot permanently, so that they can help me each month. I could see that he really meant it.

Wasn’t that so nice of them? See what I mean about stall holders, they are always there to give a hand to the next one if needed. These two had already bought a jar of relish from me, but I thought it was worth another jar each for them for their trouble! Then I asked to whom was I talking: the right hand 89 year old said he was Bill & my other little helper was Ron.

Well I drove off home with all my left over jars of relish, plus my loot feeling a very happy little vegemite, having found two new friends who want to help a stray lass!

So if I do get site 118 from now on, half my market day worries will be over with Ron & Bill to help me. If their wish comes to fruition & has the okay of the Lions Club I will inform these two nice guys just who I am: ‘the original Pudding Lady’ who makes the best Christmas Pudding in the world. Not just my opinion but that of one of our largest food halls in Australia, David Jones, to whom we supplied for years.

And next Christmas I will promise them both the most delicious pudding they will ever taste! I will also take them some slices next month to prove my point!

So it looks like I won’t have to wait until some stall holder dies to get on the permanent list as I was told. However, we will see what takes place in this regard on the third Sunday of next month but life in the market place sure looks interesting.

Fondest Love, Dawn X O X O