20 June 2009

Farewell Pete!

Readers, this blog is to say farewell to Pete Ludowici, who passed away this afternoon in the ICU at Mater Private Hospital, South Brisbane.  This is him (above) doing one of his favourite things - fishing!  In this case, New Zealand trout fishing.  So, today Pete died in the ICU.  He made it through his surgery for a week but then developed secondary infection and today mum & his daughters elected to withdraw treatment that was keeping him artificially alive.  Once they'd done that, Pete died within an hour.  Everyone is pretty cool about it.  It was really the only option - and the best outcome for all.  So, we are sitting around here at home drinking whisky (Pete's tipple of choice) and watching vintage cowboy movies on Foxtel.  These are the cupcakes we took the nurses today for their morning tea.  The ICU staff at the Mater Private have been absolutely brilliant.  

This photo (below) pretty well typifies life at our house over the past two weeks - and possibly explains why I have not been blogging.  We have had a house full of guests and that, combined with being so busy at work & with training for the 1/2 marathon (& drinking too much red wine) has left me too tired to blog. Pathetic excuse I agree, but the truth, I'm afraid.

Other than having a house full of women (Pete's 3 daughters, mum and the dog) nothing much else has been happening.  It has been just generalised chaos really.  My lovely friend Leigh sent me a photo of her beautiful daughter Zoe to cheer me up.  Isn't she a gorgeous little munchkin? She is just back from France & staying up all night so possibly she is not as cute as she looks??
 


3 comments:

Susan Buret said...

Sorry Jen.I hope that the relief of Pete's suffering gives all of you the chance to be at peace.

Anonymous said...

Love and hugs to you Jen. Pete will be so pleased you were all there together to look after each other and to remember his life. Can I bake for you? x

Anonymous said...

Jen - Sympathies to your Mum and 'all Pete's girls'. Your fond remembrances of him when he was hale and hearty, doing the things he loved - fishing, drinking whisky and watching cowboy films - are a fitting tribute and give your readers a little insight into his life. Best wishes to all of you for the coming days, weeks, months.