Back again

I haven’t posted for a while because I had been busy and then away in Sydney. Now I am back and have time and lots of things to show you and tell you.

However, this one will be a little different.

On Sunday we flew to Sydney for 6 nights (more of that later, I promise) and came back yesterday. I woke up yesterday to the terrible news of the Malaysian Airlines plane being shot down. All lives were lost, including quite a few delegates to the HIV/Aids Conference happening in Melbourne. A commentator made me think when he said “What if the cure for HIV/Aids was on that plane?”

But as I was packing my suitcase to make the short hop between Sydney and Melbourne I was thinking of all those people who had packed their cases before their tragic flight. Slipping in the souvenirs; packing the presents to bring home; wondering whether it is worth taking home that old pair of shoes or could the space be used for the new handbag; carefully checking that all the documents for the conference are packed; squashing in another jumper for the Southern Hemisphere Winter.

We know what they would have been thinking as they packed, because we all think the same. Those returning home would have been reflecting on the holiday, the joys, the disappointments; those heading off would be thinking about the adventure to come. All would have been thinking about loved ones, saying good bye, saying hello, never realising that they would not get a chance to say a final goodbye. And that is the tragedy of sudden death, never being able to say goodbye.

So all those suitcases packed with thoughts and memories and hope, packed by people who never had a chance to say goodbye.