Part 6
Surgery was something that I had wanted for a long time. Gladly, I opted to go private as my previous attempts at public hospitals had been unsuccessful, in that the first one flat out refused and the second one bailed literally as I was waiting in pre-op. I was over the bullshit. So I went in and had my double mastectomy and oh my God, the freedom I felt was incredible.
By this time, my mother was starting to talk to me because she wanted access to my son. On the flip side, my ex was using piss poor excuses as to why his mother was the only one who really wanted to see my son. My son expressed his discomfort going up to visit the other side of his family as they made him sleep in the floor on the couch cushions. Not really very nice. He said he didn’t want to go. So I told them that. It was fine by me. He didn’t want a bar of them.
So I began to spend time planning for something amazing. Buying my first house. It took us a while, but Soulmate and I had it all worked out. We eventually bought a nice little house and made it our home. My son, meanwhile, was hoping we could have another child. Someone for him to grow up with.
So, despite everything else going on we decided to try - through the miracles of modern science and after 13 agonising attempts my Soulmate became pregnant. How joyful for us. We’d made a serious commitment to one another by having a ceremony (way before marriage equality as a thing), and now we were having a baby.
Mentally I was in a good headspace. Meanwhile, my mother was doing all kinds of crazy shit and I was in no mood for it. My Soulmate was made redundant from her job and I was desperate to do something different. We sold our house, paid our debts and decided to move. Far away. Interstate. To an island.
Mother went berserk. Why was I going so far away. Why? How could I do that? Simply put, I needed to get the hell away from everyone and everything that was causing me grief. Number one being the heat. My migraines had become a very large part of my decision to move to a cooker climate. They were also affecting my son. We chose to go live in a colder environment in the hopes it would be more comfortable. Then of course there was mother. I knew that if I stayed she would pull some crazy stunt and then she would be expecting me to fix her issues. No thanks.
My only regret is that my sister would be left behind, but she had her own life. Distance would only bond us together stronger.
So, once my lovely Soulmate gave birth to a son, I became a proud father for the second time. It was an exhausting and entirely joyous occasion. And then… We waited 6 months and then moved south. To the Apple Isle.
Life was about to change for us again… but love and perseverance would make everything okay…