Up until now I haven’t really been keeping up with Australian TV news coverage of the virus, so the fact that people are panic buying toilet paper comes as a bit of a surprise.
The first coronavirus case in Australia was reported in my home state of Victoria on Jan 25, and was someone who had recently returned from a trip to Wuhan, China. Locally acquired case numbers around the country are still in single figures, although other countries such as the UK and parts of Europe are beginning to report higher case numbers and accelerating rates of transmission.
Now that I sit down and watch the news, it’s clear the government and health authorities in Australia are getting on the front foot early, very calmly and sensibly urging the population not to panic buy toilet paper but to instead avoid large gatherings, practice social distancing wherever possible and wash your hands regularly and thoroughly.
Mask wearing, at this point, is not recommended, due to the potential risk of hand to face transmission bought about by fitting and adjusting the mask.
At least Donald Trump gets on board with that one!
I get to spend the next couple days with mum and its great to finally relax back into the familiar rhythm of Australian life.
I spent a lot of time with mum in the years before I met Dewi, splitting my week between work and business commitments in Melbourne and the less hurried pace of rural life in Nagambie.
Mum separated from her second husband Keith some years ago and for a time struggled, both emotionally and financially. I stepped in around that time, to negotiate a settlement with Keith, which resulted in mum being able to keep her house.
Graeme and I both helped her get her credit card debt under control and did whatever else we could to help get her life back on track.
Almost immediately, I was enjoying the opportunity to get out of the city for a few days as much as she was enjoying having her eldest son for company.
Around the time I met Dewi, mum, Graeme and I had begun considering options for permanent care. It’s a conversation we all have to have at some point. Mum was still able to look after herself but she wasn’t cooking anymore. There was also a concern around what would happen if she took a fall or fell ill and couldn’t get help.
She was on the permanent care waiting list for the local nursing home when someone we knew who worked there told us that an independent living apartment attached to the nursing home had just come up for rent.
This was a perfect solution and Graeme and I moved her out of her home the last time I was in Australia. She has all her meals provided and access to 24hr medical care. She is also free to come and go as she pleases, although measures are about to be introduced that will prevent her from visiting friends in the nursing home to protect the occupants from potential infection.
For now though, she has me for company so she’s happy enough.
The independent living apartments sit right on the edge of Lake Nagambie and the view from her living room is sensational. Mum calls it her million dollar apartment. And, right now, with the summer having just drawn to a close, we are being treated to some spectacular sunsets.
After a staying a couple of nights, I need to head down to Melbourne to catch up with some friends and to spend a night with my Dad’s second wife, Deidre.
Deidre was a nurse for all of her working life and in retirement keeps herself up to date with medical trends and treatments.
She was an invaluable source of knowledge while my boys were growing up and was instrumental in managing dad’s health in his final years and ensuring he received the best treatment and care in his final months.
She’s missing him badly but doing her best to get on with life. She has two children from her first marriage, Matt and Sarah, and they are both now married and raising families, so Deidre has, amongst numerous other activities, a number of happy grandchildren to keep her occupied.
She’s great company as always and I could easily have stayed longer but I need to get back to Nagambie for mum’s birthday.
On Saturday Graeme, Kiyoe and I take mum out to one of the local wineries for lunch. Nagambie is part of a vast grape growing region in Victoria and home to some of the first vines planted in Australia.
This winery however, is not one of the older ones but a large, showy facility with a spacious, modern restaurant featuring warehouse height ceilings and towering glass window panels offering expansive views of the vineyard.
Graeme and I both go for the grain fed beef paired with a bottle of the winery’s premium shiraz. Mum opts for the chicken and Kiyoe decides to try the duck. The food of course is sensational, as is the estate grown plonk!
For dessert, Graeme, a renaissance man if ever there was one, has whipped up a mango and white chocolate cheesecake. Suffice to say it is delicious.
On Sunday, I take mum to Melbourne for lunch with my two adult boys from my first marriage, Josh and Tom and their partners, Dimi and Shannon. Josh has chosen Lucy Liu Bar and Kitchen, a hip new, Asian fusion restaurant in the centre of town. It’s a bit noisy for Mum’s liking but the food is incredible. Both my boys have grown into adorable young men. Josh sits next to his gran and for most of lunch, has his arm draped around her shoulder. Tom sits opposite and tells her about his new job in construction and for he and Shannon’s plans to find an apartment together.
Mum and I travel back to Nagambie later that afternoon but I need to back to Melbourne on Monday, where I have arranged to meet with my accountant, who has a stack of paperwork for me to sign and then onto my pub to sit down with my ex-wife, Penny and our landlords, to finalise to terms of a new lease.
I’m hoping to catch up with Toby as well but it’s his day off so it will have to wait for another day.
Penny and I would have been married 28 years this month but we separated six years ago have and have now been divorced for three. We have owned and operated pubs in Melbourne together for over 20 years. It hasn’t been an easy road remaining business partners but was done largely out of necessity and the arrangement these days is, thankfully, mostly amicable.
Our meeting with the landlords goes for about two hours and we manage to resolve most of the outstanding issues. Penny and I have a chat after the landlords have left and she asks about the guesthouse and whether I’m concerned that the coronavirus outbreak will affect the business. I tell her I’m hopeful that it won’t and that I am pretty confident it will all be over as quickly as it began.
It comes as a rude awakening then, to read the following email forwarded by Josh, shortly after arriving back in Nagambie;
Dear all,
Thank you for coming to the screening of The Amber Light in Melbourne last week. We have been notified by the Department of health that one of our guests has tested positive for Coronavirus COVID-19. The department have asked for the email addresses of everyone that attended the screening to notify and give their recommendations. We have been told that this email will be sent in the next hour and I am afraid that is all the information we have at this stage. If you brought a guest please could you contact me with their email or phone number so that the department of health can contact them.
Please feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Caroline Wood
Marketing Manager
So Josh had been out to a movie screening three nights before mum and I met him for lunch, and he has potentially been in close contact with someone who has just tested positive to the coronavirus.
This is bad. Very bad.
And the threat of coronavirus is suddenly very real!
I’m booked to fly out in three days time. But I’m also living right alongside a nursing home. With my mother. Who has lung cancer. I have also sat at close quarters for two hours earlier today with my ex wife and our landlords…
I call Josh to get as much information as I can. He didn’t know the person and doesn’t believe he sat near them or spent any time close to them at after screening drinks.
How much time is not enough time be exposed?
He’s very concerned for gran but I assure him it’s not his fault and that this is probably now the way of the world.
I then speak to mum and tell her that with a little bit of luck we will be ok but we will need to speak with her GP in the morning and possibly get tested
Next I call Dewi, who at first seems more angry than concerned. She asks how I could have let that happen? I tell her that that’s what family’s do – get together to celebrate birthdays. She doesn’t seem convinced as we finish the call but she calls back a short time later and apologises. The shock of the news was initially more than she could deal with.
In the morning I call the Director of the Nursing Home. To my surprise, she does not seem overly concerned but tells me to be sure to speak with mum’s GP. She is a smart lady and an excellent administrator who already has good procedures in place.
Josh has already spoken to Penny so I put in a call to my landlords. One of them seems to be quite annoyed by the news but I figure it’s better I inform them than not. I later discover that, after our meeting, he went to visit his elderly mum. That explains the curt response.
The GP meets us in full PPE gear and I explain to her what happened. By her reading, Josh’s contact with the infected person is more casual than close and there is no need for mum and I to get tested unless we develop symptoms. But I should not, under any circumstances, be flying and mum and I should both isolate, in her apartment, for fourteen days.
Shit is getting real.