5th November 1998

The 5th November 1998 was a milestone in my business; my son had been working with me since the beginning of the year. He had turned 17 about two weeks ago and had got his driver’s licence on his birthday. It was a Thursday and this was the first day he was to work by himself in the company van. 

I had one job to finish in the city, so I took the car and drove to the centre of the city. Got to be able to find a parking metre somewhere. Around the city blocks, several times starting to stress. It was always easy to get a loading zone in the van. Light another cigarette, stress, stress ! Get a phone call from a friend, not really in the mood to chat as he soon realises. I explain I'm in a hurry and he agrees that I'm a bit stressed. Light another cigarette ! Finally go into a parking station $10 per hour. O.K. should be able to do the job and be back in an hour. Go, go go !

Grab the tool box and parts and hotfoot it down a couple of blocks to the job site. gosh, gosh the parts are difficult to fit. ... Finally got it done, test the machine.... working properly! Look at my watch its already gone past the hour. The client offers me a coffee, NO I've got to go. {Why ? I was already into the second hour of the parking ... } Wasn't thinking straight.

I grab the tool box & head back to the car. Damn It's hot and I suddenly have this awful pain in my chest. Keep going, keep going .  The tool box is so, so heavy. The pain is really getting worse. But I am bullet proof, always have been ! Just need to get back to the car, maybe its not too far past the hour. Just thinking of getting in the car to turn the air conditioner on .. I'm so hot and the chest pain is really starting to bother me .. but "I'm O.K." Finally get to the car, oh I forgot to pay the parking .. out of the car, get the lift up to the next level, pay the parking 20 bucks ! I should have sat and had the coffee that was offered. Really starting to feel bad and the chest pain is  increasing. Back to the car turn the air conditioner on ... its not really helping much. I am sweating, I can feel it running down the side of my face ... then pins & needles down both arms ???? Maybe, just maybe I'm having a heart attack. ... No, not me ! I’m only 53.

Perhaps I should drive to a hospital ? No ! I’ll be O.K. if I get home & rest. City to Kellyville ? 

As I get to the exit of the parking station, I change my mind, think I wont drive. Wouldn’t you know it a large delivery truck stops and waves me on .. {how often does that happen ??} I continue down the street & turn left onto Castlereagh St. Oh, I’m really feeling bad and the pain is getting out of control. I’ll stop, where does one stop on Castlereagh St, Outside David Jones. Too bad I’ve got to. Just pull over. {No Stopping } too bad I think I might pass out. I call 000 and request an ambulance. “On the way” ... I ring home and announce “I’m having a heart attack” I call out to a lady passing by, I yell “HELP” why doesn’t she respond ? I see a guy coming along I yell at him, he comes over {apparently my “yell” was no more that a whisper} Also a lady appears by the car, not sure if it was the lady I yelled out to. The guy takes my phone and speaks to my family, the lady finds a jacket in the boot and lays me on the footpath with the jacket under my head. I remember seeing the legs of the ambos with reflective tape around their trouser cuffs. I don’t remember any more till I was on the ambulance trolley being asked to shuffle onto the hospital bed at St Vincents Hospital. The chest pain is so intense, so, so intense. Suddenly my heart is bouncing around like a ball in a large coffee can. I can’t speak much so I grab the Doctor’s sleeve and tell him that something is going on ! He obviously knows as he is wa