The only person I had told about returning to Australia for a visit was my friend Jan, so she picked me up from the airport and took me home to surprise Mum, who was going to be in the hospital the next day for an operation. I will never forget when Mum opened the door and immediately started crying (tears of happiness, I hope !) when she saw me standing there. We talked for a couple of hours, then went to surprise Dad too. It was so good to be back there after not having seen them for 9 months. I could only stay for 11 days, as I had to get back to work at Transco, but I am really glad I was there to see Mum go into and come back out of hospital in one piece, also to be there for Dad whilst Mum was being operated on. It was hard saying bye at the airport again.