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Published: April 5th 2014
Woolly says – our lives had been settling down nicely, Ian had been feeling a little unwell so we decided to try out the Turkish hospital facilities. Boy do they move fast! As soon as blue books appeared we were whisked away and Ian was plugged onto machines, x rays were underway and before I even had a chance to check out the nurses we were seeing a consultant. He busily showed us the results of the tests declaring that Ian’s heart was fine but he wanted to put a shunt in that afternoon, I got rather confused at this point having seen shunts on the railway lines I couldn’t work out how that would fit into Ian’s chest and hadn’t he just told us that his heart was working well!
Like Woolly we felt slightly bemused and so rather than jump onto the operating table we wandered home and looked at natural remedies to combat what appeared to be acid indigestion or something similar. Woolly says – Ian didn’t seem to be improving under our watchful eyes, in fact he seemed to be getting thinner and Jo being the worrier she is, took drastic
action and booked plane tickets for us to return to the UK and get him checked over properly. I volunteered to stay at home and guard the apartment while watering the vegetation on the balcony, my request was denied so I found myself packing my winter clothes as we set off for the airport. As we said our goodbyes to Mustafa, Ali and Maria I begged to be allowed to stay and help in the restaurant but as usual I was ignored and spent the next six hours whooshing my way across the miles to the wonders of Gatwick. After a few winks of sleep we made our way to the nearest hospital and while I entertained myself with trying to get a snack from the vending machine Ian was prodded, poked and photo’d from different angles. He didn’t look best pleased at the bounty of tests they seem to be carrying out, I offered to bang his knees with a lovely hammer I had found but that didn’t even raise a smile. Then much to my distress the doctors told us that he was going to be admitted and that Jo would be looking after me!!!!!
As the next few days unfolded so did the test results, daughter Zoe came to join us as the very worst of news was delivered, cancer of the esophagus and liver and nothing that could be done to save him. Woolly says – With our dreams and lives shattering around us Jo hired a car – oh how I miss Ollie – and we headed to Stourbridge and the wonderful staff of Mary Stevens hospice. With our closest friends and family around us, food parcels arrived with tasty treats and as Jo and Zoe didn’t seem to want much of the delights on offer I kept things tidy by consuming everything that came. We spent the last couple of weeks sitting in the sun, holding hands and paws and talking quietly to my hero leaving a trail of tissues in our wake as we showered Ian with love. We talked and laughed and remembered our adventures, the places we had found and the delights of the sausages consumed.
Ian died peacefully in the early hours of Monday 1st April 2014 with Zoe, Woolly and myself holding him. Woolly says – Words
can’t express our thoughts and feelings, people keep asking what we are doing to do, a question that none of us has an answer to at the moment. With the wonderful Dave, Sammy and Ray helping us to organise the necessary details we only know that we will head home and see what the world sees fit to bring us next, what we do all know is that we can never replace the wonderful man that we will be leaving behind.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Shattered dreams
My heart breaks while reading this touching tribute. Our thoughts our with you. Words never come easy in these situations. We are surrounding you with white light and hugs.