Hi, nice to finally meet you too, Doctor.

No need to apologise for the colours. My wife has always loved bright colours. When she couldn’t walk around anymore I planted extra plants to brighten up her views. From our bed, she could see all the different flowers that I had planted outside the window. She liked to sit in our living room and from her wheelchair, she could see all of the flowering winter plants I had planted for her. The colours of your scrubs are very welcome here.

How did we first meet? After university, I went to work for a large steel company. All the company workers and their families lived in the company complex. It was like a city, 50,000 people lived there. In this area, there were 45km of railway lines. I lived in one of the buildings for single males, in a serviced apartment. We were well looked after. We didn’t have to cook, all meals were provided in the company dining halls. I liked to play the card game Bridge and I joined the company tournament. During one of the first matches, I beat my opponent by 25-0. If you know Bridge that is the highest score possible. I must have impressed her with my Bridge skills or maybe it was my long hair. Whatever the reason, my future wife started to ask me out.

My wife’s family worked for a subsidiary of the company. She was born in the city, went to the company school, through university and then was employed by the company as well. We had good times working there, but we wanted something different for our children, which is why we moved to New Zealand.

My wife is amazing, she’s so strong and has lived with her cancer for over seven years. She’s had so many treatments and some of them were so hard to go through but she was so determined to stay with us. Things have been tough at times but we have been happy. During these years our eldest child was married and now is a parent of our three beautiful grandchildren. Last night I missed out on a party. The family were singing my wife’s favourite songs. They were using a banana and a hairbrush as microphones. They had a good time and were all laughing so much.

Thank you for your time as well, and it was a pleasure for me to share our story. Good memories.

Yes, my hair is naturally wavy. I decided to grow it long again, while I still can, just like it was when we first met each other.

Thanks again for all your help and care. See you later.