Hardship

30^th July 2012

Yesterday I spoke for some time to the community nurse of RR.  A woman on her own and in her 60’s, I’m guessing. She told of her time working in Papua New Guinea , then the Kimberley’s and other remote Top End communities. She told me of times she had been called out in the night to help the dying or at times dead. But so close to home and saddest for me was her sharing the news of the infant that died the night before I arrived.  She spoke of the young mother running down the main street of RR crying for help and of how, as a nurse she had sat all night with the little one, waiting for the police to arrive and of the pain and suffering the family were enduring.

We take it for granted that our medical and emotional needs will be taken care of immediately, that any support we need is at our finger tips, and that a phone call for help does not mean waiting for a car to travel for three hours.

I have the greatest admiration for these outback workers that travel vast distances, often alone and in dangerous situations, and I am again reminded of the comfortable life I lead in safe Melbourne.