Five Months Pt 2

March 29, 2012 at 10:22 am (family, friends, History, photography, tina, update)
Tags: photos, Tina

These photos were taken between August and October 2011…and I cry…I can’t help it.

Our first week back in Cooktown. Kieth & Sal from the Sovereign Resort put us up for a week.

Just before She shaved My head 🙂

Two of our dear friends showed us the North end track into Walker Bay beach. For those of you used to urban beaches, this spot is 4wd only, you rarely see anyone else, and the beach itself is 30 metres away from this naturally grassy spot. Thickets of beach shrubs & sheoaks break up the breeze. A beautiful place.

Tinas Nom Nom Paw-Paw (papaya). Beautiful sweet & juicy, tree ripened. You haven’t tasted pawpaw until you’ve eaten it this fresh.

Being a tourist.

My baby never was comfortable in front of a camera. She tolerated my requests on rare occasions. I should have kept taking photos of Her, but it was one thing that seriously annoyed her. We didn’t do things that annoyed each other. We could feel each others emotions so acutely that it felt normal being inside each others heads.

“Don’t take photo of my fat belly.”
“I’m not! I’m taking a picture of Floyd.”
“Sure :)”.

Tinas foot & Floyd.

These two photos were taken on the eighth of September 2011. We went back to see Trevathan falls, because last time, there was so much water coming down those falls that we couldn’t get anywhere near them. Imagine at least five metres of water over Tina’s head and roaring through this little gorge.

That afternoon, back at the camp. On the site of an old tin mine.

Back home in Cooktown a day later. Going blonde. She found this wig in the ‘lair’. No, She did not wear it outside :).

“See? They opened my head up from here, right through to here!”
A series of photos Tina wanted for herself, because She couldn’t see Her kick-arse scar :).

14 September 2011. Snoozing after a short walk. Her energy levels weren’t huge anymore. Well compared to ‘before’. Tina preferred to watch the dogs & us, and the eagles & the beach.
I remember when Tina was leaving Rocky for Cooktown around February 2011. She told me, “I’m going to soak up my children (and her granddaughter-they were all ‘Her’ children).” I would see her staring at them individually, looking at them from every angle. Burning their images into  Her mind.

27th of September 2011. The side effects of the anti-brain swelling medication was an extreme increase in appetite. Tina went from 58kg in early August, to about 75kg in this pic. I think Her friends up here at some stage thought She must have been getting better. After all, people generally think of cancer as a wasting disease. We generally associate cancer with images of pale, bald, underweight chemotherapy recipients, not fast weight gain.
Brain cancer is insidiously sneaky. This photo was taken not long before Her second series of seizures. It is also the last photo I have of Her on my phone.

I also keep these two close. One was taken some time ago. The other, my daughter took not long after Tina recovered post op.

I love you my Phoenix. Fly baby.