Sandy talks about her father’s death after a ten-year decline with dementia. At first, he lived in his own home in Balingup. Later, he spent the nights in Sandy’s home but would always want to go home. Before her father died, he was in a coma for five days. Sandy talks about the tranquillity of this time in contrast to his traumatic hallucinations, and of the moment her father died. She feels that he waited for her and that it was a beautiful parting gift. Sandy also talks about the death of her son, Hugo, who was born with a heart defect.
In the three days she had Hugo at home, she describes her father building a beautiful coffin that the family painted and lined with silk, and the family planning the funeral and doing everything themselves. Sandy reflects that people were more comfortable talking to her about the loss of her father than her child. She also talks about her mother who died thirty years ago of cancer, to whom she speaks every day. She says, ‘I have great fun with her, she’s just alive in my soul every day.’