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It was 31 years ago when I graduated from St Louis School. But when I saw the frail figure of Father Deane resting in his armchair in the nursing home in September, all those years flashed by without a trace…..
We flew into Dublin and took the train to Shankill. Shankill was a lovely town about an hour south east of Dublin by train. Theresa who was looking after Father came and picked us up from the station. The nursing home was about 5 minutes away.
Father's room was at the far end of the nursing home. It was bright and airy and quite comfortable. Affected by his Parkinson's disease, Father was not the same as I remembered him. But as I have kept in touch with his conditions over the past few years, I was not totally surprised. In fact, he looked much better in person than I expected. The carer whom the Trust hired has helped to slow down the inevitable deterioration in his physical state.
Father was recovering from a fever on the day we visited him. He was a bit tired but when he saw us he seemed excited. We asked the question many of us wanted to ask: "Do you remember me Father?" We took the slight nod and a blank stare as the confirmation. At least he was not shaking his head. We wanted him to remember us.
Father was very interested in the chocolate we bought for him from Scotland. But he had difficulty unwrapping the box. It was distraught for us to see the damage his Parkinson's disease has caused him. My wife, a Clarian whom Father probably also remembered, kept asking herself why nothing could be done to help him improve his condition. The sad fact was there was very little that could be done medically.
We stayed for about an hour and have to leave to catch our plane to London and then back to Sydney that evening. When we said goodbye Father held my wife's hand tightly for a long while and would not let go. It might be his muscles were getting more rigid. But it seemed to me that he was really unhappy that we were leaving.
After we told him several times that other Old boys – Alex Wong, Ben Lau and Tony Wong would be visiting him a few days later and that we had to catch a plane, Father let us go. We waved goodbye to a sad, lonely look in his eyes.
We had 27 hours to think about our visit before we arrived home in Sydney.
In his present conditions, there will not be much that Father can enjoy. I think Father did enjoy our visit. There are many Old boys in Hong Kong, US, Canada and Australia that Father knew well and some of them have made the trip to see him. Many others have yet to do so.
Peter Cheung
Sep 2002
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