Embracing life & saying goodbye

Kevin and Robert in front of a termite mound in the Northern Territory of Australia 2011.

At the Crossroads Pub, New South Wales, March 2012.

Kevin and I at the Adelaide River Inn. February 2011.

Life has thrown us quite a few curves this spring. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, our living situation has been crazy – we had to move out of yet another apartment, all of our stuff is in storage and we are in a temporary apartment for a few days now. It’s disconcerting and I feel displaced. But yesterday, we got the news that Robert’s dad had died. And while all the other things will continue to be hard, they pale in comparison to the loss.

Kevin Corkery had been battling lung cancer, prostate cancer and emphysema for a few years. He died of a massive coronary and went quickly, with his sister, brother and other family members around him. Robert and I were here in Stockholm and felt very far away. Living so far away from our families is the very hardest parts of our international life and we are working hard to find a flight to Australia for the funeral that’s not too insanely expensive.

Of course, we miss him already. We spent a lot of time yesterday looking at photos of Kevin and reminiscing. It’s hard to fathom that I won’t hear  him say “G’day beautiful” with his thick, Australian drawl.

My father-in-law was a character in just about every way. He was opinionated, often difficult and perhaps a little too fond of the beer at the pub. From what I’ve heard, he was quite the cad in his younger days. But he was loyal to those he cared about, never failed to say “love you” at the end of a phone call to us and within seconds in a new place, could be involved in a conversation with a local. Although he lived most of his life in a small country town, he lived life fully. He was well read and curious about the rest of the world and I think he passed some of that on to Robert.

When Robert and I were married in 2002, he traveled to the US for our celebration there and charmed everyone with his accent and tales of Australia. He had a deep-seated love of the bush – one of his greatest joys was getting into the remote outback of Australia. Kevin had strong opinions on what could be called outback: dirt roads, no fences, no phone lines. In short, after we had driven for a few days and maybe passed one other truck, he would only then deem we were in the outback. His knowledge of the outback – the flora and fauna, the history, how to travel and survive in it – was immense. I loved hearing his tales of working in the outback as a surveyor where he camped for weeks at a time and navigated by the stars.

Robert and I went on our fourth outback trek with him in March. We knew then that it would probably be our last. I’m so happy  we got that time with him.

The Corkery family, somewhere around 1975. That's Robert in the blue sleeve T-shirt in front. Kevin is on the right and Robert's siblings Kylie and Jason are also in the photo.

Tagged as: outback Australia