Linda from WN Bull proceeded to then outline for us the other decisions we needed to make, although she stressed that we could take the information under consideration and get back to her with the consensus in the next day or so. The next item we needed to decide upon was to pick out a coffin. I guess I hadn't thought that part through as I had a moment of confusion in my mind about the need for a casket when we had just made the decision to have Geoff's remains cremated. Linda explained that Geoff would be kept in the coffin from the time he arrived at the funeral home and was prepared right up to the actual cremation which would be performed with his body in the coffin. He would also be prepared for viewing, if anyone desired to do that, and presented for that purpose in the casket as well. She handed us catalogs exhibiting scores of choices for designs, colors, materials and configurations. At a time in our lives when we could have imagined Robin and me advising Geoff on picking out a suit that was appropriate for his wedding, we were forced to make a choice of the vessel in which his body would be housed for the next few days and then burned. Understand that most of the communication at this point is non-verbal among the 6 of us and consists of mostly nodding of our heads and eye contact. We all took turns looking at the catalogs through the fog of our tears. We started wondering aloud, "What would Geoff want?" and the consensus was nothing too ornate or fancy but elegant and simply stated. After very little debate and a decision to go ahead now rather than later we picked out a beautiful Tasmanian Blackwood timber coffin with a satin finish that I feel confident was a choice with which Geoff would have agreed. The theme "What would Geoff want?" carried through then to the flowers (whole, three-quarter or half drape); we ultimately decided on the half-drape so as to have room on the top of the coffin to display photos and personal articles. Geoff would have wanted green as the predominate color we concluded next. "Did we want to place an announcement in the Sydney Morning Herald?" Was the next proposition for which I volunteered to write the obituary and we all agreed we would (or should I say Geoff would) want that. After all, he had lots of friends that we were striving to make sure were notified of the service, once that was arranged. There were then details about which crematorium we would want to use, whether or not we wanted to be present for the cremation, who would pick up the ashes, how we were to arrange transport to the service and other miscellaneous details for the interim period and on the day of the actual service.
Linda then brought up the idea of a viewing. She reminded us that the Catholic service would not allow an open casket so the opportunity to view Geoff's body was only available at the office of WN Bull. I knew I had to do that. I had not seen Geoff for some time before he died and never once doubted that was what I wanted to do. Candi also wanted to be involved. We concluded that we would like to have a viewing but available only to close family members at a yet to be determined time and day. After all, Geoff's body still lay in the State coroners morgue and none of us were sure when he would be transported to the WN Bull facility.
Linda then suggested that we make an appointment with Our Lady of Fatima to make sure of their availability to conduct the service. She mentioned that she had spoken to the church secretary and thought Wednesday afternoon (October 13) was a possibility. We quizzed her on a timeline for the process from this point and she suggested that the morgue could possibly release Geoff's body that afternoon or maybe the following day, Saturday. In any event they were appropriately staffed for that part of the process and would alert us when the transfer was completed. She indicated that in either case, no preparation of Geoff for a viewing could be started before Monday as that part of the facility was closed over the weekend. She asked me to contact her once they had possession of Geoff's body so that we could schedule the viewing.
Linda congratulated us on our ability to move through this difficult meeting and assured us that if we had second thoughts about any of the details we had some time to change our minds and they would accommodate us as best they could. At that, she excused herself and gave everyone in the room a hug. A wave of sadness, mixed with the emotional release of completing this heavy task overtook every one of us. Maggie then lead the group in The Lord's prayer. Altogether we were not satisfied at the "Amen" and implored JoJo to lead us in an appropriate Muslim prayer. After a very small amount of reluctance she instructed each of us to turn our hands in an upward manner, like 2 cups waiting to catch some rain as none of us had any experience with this custom. Jo then recited her selected verse which we all listened to with intensity. We thanked her and started to shuffle, collectively, toward the door, through the foyer from which we had earlier entered the conference room back out onto the brightly sunlit boulevard that was King Street.
Compared to when we arrived at the WN Bull facility, Newtown was at full throttle. The streets were packed with the traffic moving at a slow but steady pace. Pedestrians were moving with purpose up and down the sidewalks and we needed to stand to the side in order to not impede the locals hurrying to their lunch or to complete their shopping with whatever little time they had obviously allowed themselves. It seemed that all the shops, restaurants and other public buildings were buzzing with activity. Luke suggested we find a place to have lunch and we stumbled around a bit before deciding on the Sumalee Thai restaurant in the Bank Hotel. Melissa used her IPhone to track down Jeanette and Candi to ask them if they would like to join us. They were about 30 minutes away and agreed to meet us in the restaurant.
We made our way to the restaurant and ordered drinks (the adult kind) and a plate of hot chips to hold us over until Jeanette and Candi turned up. They arrived as promised about 30 minutes after we had and then the group ordered a selection of appetizers and Thai dishes that we shared family style. Candi told us about their morning and kept the mood light for all of us after our trying visit to the funeral home. There were plenty of questions about police work in L.A. that had involved Officer Candace and she obliged one and all with tales of her exploits. It was just what we needed at the time.
After we had finished our lunch we broke up into 3 groups and most of us headed back to Robin's with Luke going to his home. We agreed we would contact the church to discuss the details for the service and Our Lady of Fatima's availability as soon as we arrived in Bexley North.
When we arrived at Robin's we contacted the church office and made an appointment to speak with one of the priests the next afternoon (Saturday) at the office. Soon after that, the phone rang, Robin answered it and after a short conversation, which I was not overhearing, she handed the telephone to me and said "It's the Coroner, they would like to speak with you". I identified myself and a pleasant enough young lady came on the line. She began speaking to me in a clear and practiced manner "Mr. Loe, we have performed an autopsy on your son, Geoffrey, and our preliminary findings are that the cause of death was Lymphoma". My brain began spinning around in my skull. How could this be? How could the cause of death be Lymphoma when we were told he died of cardiac arrest and had an infection; glandular fever? We believed Geoff's Lymphoma had been in remission and he had all the requisite follow ups how could it be possible that had been the causation of the death of our precious Geoff? I'm sure I peppered the young lady with all of these questions without waiting for her to answer. When I finished with my diatribe she began to explain what they refer to as the "coronial process": This statement as to the cause of death was preliminary in nature and in fact the death certificate for Geoff would be issued with no cause of death indicated. Based on the observations of the attending examiner at Geoff's autopsy he concluded, based on a visual inspection, that there was a significant number of enlarged lymph nodes that ranged from his sinuses to his groin. They had removed any number of his internal organs as well as tissue samples from various parts of his body and they would be sending those to laboratories for analysis. The analysis would include a number of different procedures to assist in the final determination and some of those analyses would take a good amount of time before they could know the results. She also stated that they would be obtaining the medical records from Geoff's doctors to be reviewed by their staff and that they would also be interviewing the doctors that had treated him. I then asked her for an estimate on how long she thought that process would take. She blew me away with the answer "We anticipate the findings will be available in eight to twelve months". The caller made sure I had contact information for the coroner's office and that I knew the process for applying to receive a copy of the autopsy findings, once available. She also told us that they had been in contact with WN Bull and that arrangements had been made to transport Geoff from their facility to that of WN Bull.
I was stunned. I thanked her and hung up the phone. I repeated the conversation for everyone in the room and they were all equally shocked about this surprising analysis. Robin and I agreed we would make an appointment with Geoff's hematolgists who had been treating him since he was first diagnosed with the Lymphoma in 2007 as soon as we could get in to see them. We had 2 Macbook computers in the dining room at the house in Bexley North, one belonging to Jo and the other had been Geoff's. I grabbed Geoff's notebook and started investigating on my own any possible answer to what was now a thoroughly confusing puzzle.
No comments:
Post a Comment