Chapter Five-(2013)
George Leonard Pratt-(93yrs). (Our visit to see Dad in Hospital)

Our daughter Barbara took Helen and I down to see Dad
in Palmerston North Hospital last Thursday-20th Dec,2012.
She drove over from Tauranga and our first stop was at
Taupo. The picture shows my wife Helen and Barbara's

little 3 and a half  month old son Jake, during our lunch break.
When we arrived at the Hospital, Mum and my sister Janice were visiting
as they had been doing nearly every day with a 50 km trip up from Levin.

Dad had been diagnosed with terminal Cancer about 2 weeks previously on
our last trip down to see him on his last visit to Hospital.

He has been ill for many months, and has many problems and needs lots of
medical help and family support. Mum and my sisters Janice and carol have
been totally involved and towers of strength for Dad.

On some days, they have had up to 7 different visitors and a phone that
that was incessantly ringing.


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On Friday Barbara took Helen, Mum and Myself up to see Dad. He has lost
a tremendous amount of weight, and gets tired very quickly. His grandson
Kevin & Helen also arrived, and so did daughter Janice/Mike and their
families.

The picture above shows one of the nurse's at the

Hospice that attends to Dad's needs. He said they

are wonderful, are very busy and do a wonderful job.

Kevin is the son of Dad's daughter Delwyn, and also

pictured is his wife, also called  Helen and daughter Felicity who also visited.

They bought Dad a lovely card for his 93rd birthday and also the beautifully fragrant roses which can be seen

up on the shelf where dad asked Kevin to place them so he could see them.

 Peeping around the corner is our daughter Barbara who had Jake in his pram, and she was
feeding and moving the pram up and down the corridor to have a sleep. He is really
great, always alert, sleeps so well, drinks well and takes everything in his stride. Barbara
has really great understanding and good routines with him

 The staff surprised Dad with this lovely chocolate Birthday cake. We all enjoyed
a big piece each.

 Mum and Dad together. Mum is 90 years old and we came down a few weeks
ago for her birthday. Helen and I took her down town and and she passed all the
tests and got her Licence renewed against her expectations. Mum and Dad have
been married for over 71 years. I showed Dad this photo on the digital replay
and although he had been in pain all day, was being treated for an eye problem, he
was able to joke about  looking like a pair of ghosts in the picture.

Little Jake, wide awake again with his grandma, Helen.
He is the youngest of about 75 descendants that Mum and Dad have,
but there are more coming..