#47 - Confirming arrangements for celebration 2 June, plus map

There have been no last minute changes.

After a private natural burial in Gunghalin cemetery, a celebration of Philip's life will take place at 2 p.m. at the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion, National Arboretum, as previously advised. We will have a slide show featuring Philip in his different roles (though some have not yet been retrieved from his multiple computers!), contributions from family and friends, and some music.

The Canberra Times made an error last week which meant a notice did not appear on Saturday, There is a notice in today (Wednesday)'s paper. They have made another error in the online notice, spelling Philip's name wrongly as 'Phillip' in the subheading although correctly in the actual notice. . I have asked them to correct the spelling. I believe the subbing is done offshore.

Here is a map showing how to get to the Pavilion. Parking is limited and some of you might have to park in the main Arboretum car park and walk up. It would be thoughtful to leave some closest parking for the less able-bodied. Note that the map shows a southern route for accessing Pavilion parking.

Map:   http://www.nationalarboretum.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/494861/FINAL-How-to-get-to-MW-Pavilion-font-adjusted.pdf

If link, or a copy-and-paste, doesn't work, just Google, margaret whitlam pavilion map.

You are warmly invited to continue celebrating Philip's life after the ceremony, when light refreshments will be served.  We look forward to seeing you there.

#46 - Inviting your contributions to Philip's celebration of life

We invite Philip's friends to send in stories or memories (serious or amusing) or reflections on what Philip meant to you. We would like read out as many as time permits at the celebration of his life on Thursday

So that your name can appear on the printed program, please let Jocelyn know by 11 a.m. on Tuesday 31 May, whether you will be contributing. She would need your contribution by Tuesday night.

Jocelyn's email address is: jocelyn.bell@gmail.com

My Later Life - As dictated to Maureen in May 2016

Philip’s life – work, family and social involvement

When Philip came out of the Priory he was ‘a lost soul’, who was very lonely because he had to break the friendships made there. He had no employment history and at the age of 27 had to decide what to do to build a new life.  He went to employment agencies, including teaching agencies, and the public service. His first job was as house master at Melbourne Grammar, but he found teaching difficult because he had eye problems following a squash injury.

He left teaching after a year and joined the Department of Labour & National Service. There he met Maureen who had a lot of positive energy and he thought was a lovely person. On her part Maureen recognised that Philip had an exceptional intellect and that he should be promoted rapidly. However his training which led him to go straight to the heart of a problem was not appreciated in the public service.

After Maureen left DLNS to work for Australian Volunteers Abroad as an organiser, Philip used to drop in to her home. He was not dating widely, but one thing which struck him, especially when he met her family, was that she was used to good quality food, something which had not been part of his life up until then.

Recognising that he had energy to input into a political campaign, Maureen involved him in the Immigration Reform Group which at that time still had the focus of abolishing the White Australia Policy.

They married in February 1969. A Dominican friend, Fr Robert Doran married them. Robert ended at working at the prestigious liberal arts Amherst College, Massachusetts, teaching scripture and married a Jewish scholar.

Maureen resigned from her dream job in May 1970 because overseas travel would not have been possible with a baby, and Jocelyn was born on 9 July. Philip said that he was at that time ‘terrified of children’, but nonetheless became a devoted father, and Maureen ensured that every Sunday was devoted to family activities, either by going on excursions or visiting the children’s grandparents.

By then Philip had begun on a long and debilitating campaign to stop Camberwell Council rushing through approval for a developer to build flats in Maverston Street on a bushy block over our back fence. He took out a Supreme Court writ against the Council and spent years campaigning for residents' candidates to displace the vested interests on the council. He was a campaign manager for one of the candidates and stood for council himself.

In May 1972 a second daughter, Lisa, was born, and he doted on his two girls. Philip loved having close physical contact with his children, carrying them in the mai tai sling on weekend bush walks, and helping them build confidence rock scrambling and climbing. He took enormous pleasure in watching them grow physically, emotionally, intellectually and artistically, and develop a sense of family. He shared his passion for language and etymology, and gave them the skills to decipher any new word of Greek or Latin origin. 

Family has been important to him and he has relied on them to support him in his passions. He and Maureen are both extremely proud of their girls.

The family joined the Junior Field Naturalists club, attending meetings and going on excursions and the yearly Junior Field Nats Easter camp. This was a source of great joy and learning and set up a basis for Jocelyn’s eventual studies in Ecological Science alongside Law at ANU. Lisa too grew to have a love and appreciation of nature through the Junior Field Nats activities.

Philip’s health deteriorated throughout the 1970s with frequent migraines. This was partly due to the stress of the Maverston street campaign which left the family mentally, physically and financially exhausted. It was also due to the long term effect of his time in the priory and his unsuitability to public service work. 

He had taken a year’s leave of absence in 1973 to work in his brother Graham’s business, Slide In Doors, which he enjoyed.  When he eventually returned to the public service he found that his former area of labour market research had been reorganised and he had been passed over.

In 1975, as soon as Jocelyn began school and Lisa started preschool, Maureen, who had only had temporary contract work until then, began a Dip. Ed. at Monash Uni. She thought that teaching would give her a way of looking after the children during school holidays, there being few child care centres then.

In 1980 the family moved to Canberra and Philip initially worked at the Bureau of Labour Market Research, then went to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Maureen began teaching at the then Canberra College of TAFE, teaching English to adult migrants.

Philip helped set up the Field Naturalists Association of Canberra in 1981. Based in a town of academics the club took a different emphasis to the Victorian club, but nevertheless continue his interest in nature which was life-long and was the source of many good friendships. One of the memorable family trips with the club was the Bob Weston safari which took a large group camping to southern Queensland and western NSW.

Philip’s interest in nature led him to campaign with Dr Chris Watson to protect Gininderra Creek and he was also involved in the Save our School (Cook Primary) campaign with good friend and neighbour, Kerry Keneally. In the early 1980s he was active in the Residents Rally political movement. Later he also doorknocked for a series of political candidates, including Liberal, Labor, Greens and Democrat candidates (in the latter case his daughter), if they were people he believed had the community's interests at heart.

Philip also helped establish the Friends of Mount Painter (FoMP), for which Lisa created a logo that was used for many years. FoMP campaigned to remove cattle from the summit to support bush regeneration, and staged a public event attended by local politicians to further the campaign, which eventually succeeded to the chagrin of the local farmer. FoMP later morphed into a park care group that removes weeds from the mountain, and the group continues today.

Philip was still unhappy in his work, largely he believed, because of the lasting effect of his years in the priory. He took a package in 1989, aged 51, and joined the AMP Society as an agent/adviser to make sure he had the skills to defend the nest egg his package represented. He completed a graduate diploma in Financial Planning through Deakin University and became an accredited financial planner, working mainly with retiring university staff.

Around 1986 he joined the Personal Computer User Group’s Coffee and Chat group (which Maureen calls ‘the Big Boys computer group’) established in 1984 by Gloria Robbins. He was going to C’n’C meetings until late last year, riding his bike alternate weeks to Belconnen and Weston Creek. During the years 2000-2004 he gave computer help to people in the community who had missed out on computer education, in later years through the government's Digital Divide program. 

During the 1990s he took up teaching again, this time sharing his passion for natural vision improvement through running TAFE courses on the Bates Method. Philip had got rid of his own glasses for myopia back in the 10s while at university, and wanted others to benefit as he had.

In 2006 he set up the U3A Non-Geeks group for those less skilled with computers, where he instituted the "honker" to be sounded whenever anyone got too geeky. This group too is continuing.

Philip also contributed to a number of other community campaigns, such as the Save Our Ridge campaign that tried to stop construction of the Gungahlin Drive Extension.  

His involvement in the Mental Health Carers Network (now Forum) dates from 1997. Maureen had for some years previously sat as a carer representative on the Clinical Practice and Quality Improvement committee and the Clinical Review committee. Philip became a representative on the Risk Management and Strategic Planning committees. They both became disillusioned by the limited value placed on their input by the Health Department/Directorate. Maureen continued on the Consumers and Carers Advisory Board at the National Institute of Mental Health Research based at ANU until Philip's health issues meant she needed to cease her involvement.

Philip’s legacy of mental health reform lives on. Other dedicated and forward-thinking carers are taking up the cause. 

My Early Life - As dictated by Philip to Dierk von Behrens in May 2016

Like so many other Australian families, and in my case on both my mother’s and father’s sides, my family story is deeply affected by mining.

My Mother’s story

My mother’s father, Ted Mullins, was killed in a gold mining accident in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, in 1905, when my mother was a child of only around five years.

My mother’s mother died shortly afterwards, in the same year, of a "broken heart". This led to all sorts of upheavals in the life of my mother, Ruby Frances Mullins.

When my mother Ruby was orphaned in Tasmania, she was taken under the wing of her aunt, Kate Sanguinetti (nee Smith) who was living in Melbourne, so Ruby moved there to live with her.

Kate had married a widower, John Francis Sanguinetti, who had a 16 year old son named Frank. Ruby grew up as Ruby Sanguinetti (not even knowing the correct spelling of her birth name), within an Italian Anglican family. John Sanguinetti’s father, Giovanni Baptiste Sanguinetti had arrived in Australia in 1853 and made the pragmatic decision to join the local Anglican Church, St Stephen’s in Richmond, bringing his family into contact with the Bell family of cabinetmakers.

Ruby was happy in the Sanguinetti family, even though there was animosity from Frank Sanguinetti towards his stepmother Kate.

My Father’s story

My father Francis (Frank) Arthur Bell - came from a well-established family with a quality furniture making tradition spanning four generations.

On my father’s side, my great-great-grandfather Thomas Bell arrived in Australia in 1836 as part of the Adelaide free settler movement, and he built all of the furniture for Government House in Adelaide.

Then during the 1850s, Thomas Bell moved to Melbourne and started working to build a business based on the long-term wealth of the Victorian mining boom.

Thomas Bell’s business became the most well-established quality joinery and fine furniture manufacturing business in Victoria. For example, at the time of the funeral of Burke and Wills in 1861, the Victorian Government turned to Thomas Bell to build the hearse to carry their coffins. The funeral procession through Melbourne was watched by half a million people. Fine examples of Thomas Bell’s cabinetry are still to be found in Como, Victoria. It so happens that the church that both the Bell and Sanguinetti families attended, St Stephens, was one that Thomas Bell had built the communion table for.

Upon Thomas Bell’s death, his business passed to his family of ten sons and two daughters, and the business became known as Bell Brothers Fine Furniture.

This established business foundered at the beginning of the 1870s financial depression that followed the gold rush. The Bell Brothers had taken on a large contract to provide the furniture and fittings for the headquarters of a Victorian bank, and the job was well near completion, with a large share of the business’s assets tied up in the contract. This same bank held all of the family’s liquid assets. When the bank collapsed the family’s business assets and personal assets were both lost, with the business going bankrupt shortly afterwards.

Following the bankruptcy of the family business, the Bell family moved to a rural property in Gippsland, except for the eldest son, George Nelson Bell. George Bell was Philip’s great-grandfather, who remained in Melbourne. One of the lasting legacies of George Bell is the hexagonal library table he built for the Supreme Court of Victoria, which is still in use today in the court.

Unfortunately, George Bell’s business also went bankrupt later in the 1870s, brought down by the economic recession in Victoria.

Because his father’s business had gone bust, George’s son Arthur (Philip’s grandfather) could find nowhere in Melbourne to complete his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker. This forced him to go to sea to learn his trade as a shipwright. Arthur came back to Melbourne to marry Susannah (Susie) Smith, and they had four children, including Philip’s future father, Frank Bell, the eldest son.

The meeting of Frank Bell and Ruby Sanguinetti

In keeping with the long-standing Bell tradition of locating future wives through the church, Frank Bell and Ruby Sanguinetti met at St Stephens, and were married in 1927, when Frank was 27 and Ruby was 24.

They had a son, Graham, in 1928, but then the Great Depression intervened, so they did not have their second child, Philip, until 1938. In the period after Graham was born, Frank joined Russell Engineering Parts, and was soon the right hand man to Mr Russell, the Managing Director. Russell Engineering Parts was later renamed Repco.

Following the World War II Japanese bombing of Darwin in 1942, in 1943 my father was ordered by the Manpower Directorate of the Australian government to help rebuild the airforce barracks near Darwin. While in the Northern Territory, he contracted an undiagnosed illness and died intestate in 1943 - by this time back home in Victoria.

I recall spending six happy childhood years in Victoria, including the period when my father was sent away to the Northern Territory. I remember being the young Anglican protestant boy sent to obligatory Sunday school – something I found boring. I recall the bizarre experience, following Sunday school, of sitting under a Union Jack in St Paul’s Anglican Church in Canterbury during the sermon.

However my father’s death left my mother feeling distraught and alone. Unfortunately, my mother’s Aunt Kate had died only a few months before my father, increasing her feeling of isolation. My mother felt unable to accept the help offered by the Bell family. 

In the absence of a will, the State divided my father’s assets - excluding the family home - three ways among me, my 16 year old brother Graham, and my mother. My brother’s assets and my own were put in trust until our maturity at age 21. My mother retained the family home.

Ruby meets Harry and all that followed

In 1944, a year after my father’s death, my mother met (Harry) Henry James Havelock Allen on a tram, who in time fleeced her of home and inheritance.  Harry then waited until my brother Graham had access to his inheritance at 21, and ‘helped’ him administer and squander this. We moved to Walla-Walla in 1948 where they had purchased a cinema business, and I went to school there for a bit over a year before the business was sold and we moved back to Melbourne.

We then moved from place to place in rural and urban Victoria, keeping ahead of Harry’s creditors and chasing work, my mother as a cook and Harry as a waiter. During this period I was moved from school to school, helping to chalk up a total of 11 schools attended over my primary years. The very last of my mother’s money was lost running a “picture circuit” around the NSW Riverina. This did not prove profitable and was sold for a loss.

In 1950, when I was 12 years old, Harry fled his creditors, with Ruby and me in tow, moving us all to Cairns in Far North Queensland. Harry persuaded Graham and his new wife Thelma to move to Cairns as well, so Graham could set up a radio sales and repair business and employ Harry.

Cairns was ‘the queen city of the North” but when we arrived, there was such a shortage of housing that my mother and Harry lived in a lodging house, and they put me into the Marist Brothers boarding school. I became Bishop Cahill’s ‘white haired little boy’ who served at all his morning masses.  

My mother and Harry, who were again fleeing Harry’s creditors, left me behind in Cairns when I was around the age of 14.

I concentrated on my studies and became an increasing devout Catholic living within a Catholic school environment and having developed a close relationship with Bishop Cahill. Excellent matriculation results enabled me to defer being recruited directly into the Catholic seminary, which was my goal at the time.

My mother was insistent that I finish my education before I joined the seminary. I had one of the best results in the State and gained a Commonwealth and Open scholarship for enrolment at the University of Queensland.

My pursuit of Catholic Philosophy

I started an Arts Degree at the University of Queensland in 1956, and decided to stay on to complete Honours. Here the Dean of Arts and Head of French almost persuaded me to choose an Honours degree in French. I wasn’t conscious at that time of the prevalence and effect of self-interested people. My eventual Honours degree was in English and Arts with a lacing of philosophy. My philosophy studies included Aristotle, as well as John Henry Newman and his The History of Religious Opinions. Demonstrating the enormous influence of the Catholic Church in Queensland at the time, Archbishop Dewey had earlier secured a seat on the Senate of the University of Queensland.

Through the Philosophy Department, I met the ‘Catholic Philosopher’ Durell. The appellation “Catholic Philosopher” was regarded by the Department as an oxymoron. They were fiercely anti-Labor and anti-Catholic. 

Interested in Catholic philosophy despite its contentious intellectual status, after finishing my degree I joined the Dominican Order of Preachers and attended their teaching centre in East Camberwell. Their teaching centre, along with the conservative area of Toorak, was among the most conservative centres in Australia. The Dominicans are the stable rock in the Catholic Church – their doctrine does not change through the centuries.

My experience in the Dominican ‘mother house’ was bizarre. The students served the food and collected the dirty plates, but woe betide you if you even chipped a single piece of crockery.  You had to wend your way through the large communal dining room and show each person the damaged plate, then prostrate yourself and beg each person individually for forgiveness!  It was medieval! The order was so strict that I was not granted leave to attend my grandmother’s funeral a couple of blocks away when she died in 1961.

Being increasingly critical of the Church’s teachings, and uncomfortable at how it was out of step with modern times, my ordination was delayed as the Prior and Prior Provincial had reservations about whether I was a safe choice for ordination. It was clear that I was unhappy there, suffering frequent migraines.

Life after the Priory

After the decision was made to defer my ordination, I recognised that I was unlikely to ever be ordained, having seen what had happened to another colleague whose ordination had been delayed.

In August 1965 I left the seminary, and with my Honours degree, was soon accepted into the Commonwealth Public Service, after a short period as a House Master at Melbourne Grammar. I spent 24 years in the Commonwealth Public Service in a variety of positions, before being made redundant at the age of 51.  It was during this time in the service (1981) that I helped establish the Field Naturalist Association of Canberra, having seen the enormous benefit my children gained from involvement in the Victorian Junior Field Naturalists Association.

Concerned not to dissipate my redundancy payout, and in order to learn how to manage my own resources, I joined the then dominant financial management group - AMP - as an insurance agent and adviser. I gained a Graduate Diploma in Financial Management from Deakin University and specialised in retirement investment. Through this interest in investment I succeeded to the extent of becoming not rich, but relaxed.

The end point of my philosophical journey

I no longer believe in God, though, close to death, as a result of my aggressive non-small cell carcinoma of the lung, which has metastasised, I am conscious of the danger of beliefs becoming ‘wobbly’ near death. But I can say that I went right into the bowels of religion and personally found nothing of substance there.

Today, my family and friends, as well as the English author Samuel Johnson, and the concept of The Consolation of Philosophy (as described by Boethius), provide me with lucidity and equanimity.

These are jottings on the early stages of an eventually secular life well lived. 

#45 - Live a Life that Matters

It seems appropriate to reproduce this beautiful  poem by Michael Josephson here -

Live a Life that Matters

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end. 
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. 
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. 
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. 
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. 
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. 
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. 
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. 
It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant
Even your gender and skin colour will be irrelevant. 
So what will matter? 
How will the value of your days be measured? 
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave. 
What will matter is not your success, but your significance. 
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.  What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. 
What will matter is not your competence, but your character. 
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. 
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. 
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. 
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. 
It’s not a matter of circumstance, but of choice. 
Choose to live a life that matters.

# 44 - Practical notes re memorial event

In accordance with our environmental concerns, Philip will be given a Natural Burial in a bush plot at Gungahlin Cemetery. This will be a private family ceremony at 11 a.m.

Philip was a registered Organ Donor and we hoped that at least his corneas could be accepted as a tissue donation; but in the end this was not possible.

A celebration and thanksgiving for Philip's life will be at 2 p.m. on Thursday at the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion, National Arboretum (see map below for details of the road to use to access the Pavilion parking).  This is located six kilometres from the centre of Canberra, at the western end of Lake Burley Griffin, off the Tuggeranong Parkway and a short distance south of Glenloch Interchange.

It would help us with catering arrangements if you could RSVP to maureen.bell@gmail.com

It would also be appreciated if able-bodied people could leave the car parking spaces closest to the Pavilion for those with mobility issues. 

For interstate family and friends coming to Canberra, we suggest that staying in Belconnen or North Canberra would be convenient. For Victorians driving and so entering the ACT from the Barton highway, the Belconnen Way Motor Inn and serviced apartments at Hawker are a possibility, or the Premier Hotel and serviced apartments in Benjamin Way, Belconnen.

For anyone coming by air, let us know and we will try to arrange for someone to pick you up from the airport. Some kind friends have offered to help in this way.

Watch this blog for any last-minute changes.

Continue to read the Tributes post, #38. I will continue to add to these.

#43 - Requiēscat in Pāce, 19.07.1938 - 26.05.2016

"Now cracks a noble heart. —Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
                                Horatio in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Philip's death ended up being mercifully quick.

He went from being in very good spirits on Tuesday night, the evening of the day he moved to Clare Holland House, to feeling exhausted on Wednesday morning because of his chest filling up with fluid. However he did get to say his goodbyes to family that evening.

By Thursday morning he was having great difficulty speaking because the increasing accumulation of fluid in his chest was making him so short of breath, but he managed to communicate that he felt frustrated. When asked if the frustration was about not being able to speak properly, or being trapped in a bed, he responded that he was frustrated that death wasn't coming fast enough.

The nurses asked him again if he'd be willing to take some Medazapam (a benzodiazapene) to reduce his feelings of frustration, as he'd previously refused them because he thought it would zonk him out. This time he agreed that whatever made him feel better was a good idea. He sent Jocelyn off to get a "real coffee" in case that perked him up, while the nurses did the injection of the Medazapam.

He was unconscious 15 minutes later and never regained consciousness. He died on Thursday night at around 11pm.

So we're grateful that he had only two days at the end of feeling that he had no energy left to enjoy life, and he was completely ready to die when it happened.

We will be putting information on this blog about a gathering to celebrate Philip's life, and we'll also be putting up the life stories that he dictated to a number of friends and family members, so please keep checking in.

#42 - The final stages

Philip moved to Clare Holland House yesterday afternoon, and had a lovely afternoon enjoying the view and appreciating the native birds on his windowsill.

In the evening his chest became increasingly congested and he reported that he was having trouble breathing. His voice became a lot lower.

Overnight his condition deteriorated markedly, with the congestion in the chest worsening rapidly. The doctor at Clare Holland House said that she thought this was indicative of him being in the final stages.

Lisa came in today, on her birthday, and spent time with Philip. She had the opportunity to tell him how much she loved him. Jocelyn arrived with Jason and the children in the evening, and the children got to have a last kiss and cuddle. Philip was very glad to see them all.

Maureen is spending the night with Philip, as they have fold out beds to lend to partners.

He is no longer well enough to talk to visitors but Philip managed to say tonight that he is glad that he got to see all his dearest friends and family over the past few weeks. He thanks all of you for taking the time to come and say goodbye to him.

#41 - to Clare Holland House at last

Philip has just now been transferred to he hospice, Clare Holland House, on Menindee Drive, Barton. It is on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin and Philip reports that he has a lovely room. I helped pack up for the move but there was not time for me to go to the hospice. Will report further later.

#40 - Almost there?

Today Philip almost got to the hospice but was pipped at the post at the last minute by someone sicker. He is #1 on the triage list.

We have worked out why he is sometimes confused: his oxygen saturation was down to 85% today but he sparked up when given a burst of oxygen through nasal prongs.

The hospital has promised to get him sitting up in a chair so he can use a small Chromebook. Also to wheel him out into the courtyard (which is a lovely space). But unlike Saturday when Canberra had 21 degrees of glorious sunshine, today has been cold and blustery, quite unsuited to outdoors.

#39 - MRI report

Philip has asked that for the record these rather technical sections of his last MRI scan report of 2 May, which explain how far the spinal cord is affected, be placed on the blog.

"There is more than 50% compression wedging of T8 vertebral body and 25% compression wedging of T9 vertebral body. There is bulge of the posterior verterbral body. This is leading to moderate-marked spinal canal stenosis. ... compression myelopathy at T8, T9 and T10 levels...  neoplastic infiltration at T7-T11 levels.... 65% compression wedging of L5.... 35% compression wedging of L2... ill-defined soft tissue extending into the right L5-S1, S1-S2, S2-S3 neural foramina due to the right iliac destructive lesion...."

The radiologist comments in summary -

1. Extensive metastatic lesions are seen throughout the spine.
2. Compression wedging of T8, T9 verterbrae with spinal canal stenpsos and compression myelopathy.
3. Compression wedging of L2 and L5 with no cord compression at these levels.
4. Extensive soft tissue is seen associated with destructive lesion in the posterior iliac crest. It is extending to the adjacent right L5-S1, S1-S2, S2-S3 neural foramina.
5. Enhancing nodules are seen along the cauda equina at T12, L1 level, suggesting arachnoic seeding of the neoplastic process."

He further comments that "the degree of compression wedging and posterior displacement at T8 has worsened since the previous MRI on 2 February. The changes at T9 are new. The spinal cord compression and cord myelopathy are new."

#38 - Tributes (21 May 2016 and subsequently)

Philip has been greatly touched by his friends' love, good wishes, sympathy and messages of appreciation for his life and work. He has asked that they be put on the blog. Because there is not time to contact you all for permission to quote you personally, I (Maureen) have anonymised them. They are not in any particular order. I will add to these later.

·    "We are thinking of Philip and also you and your family at this time.".

·    "This comes with positive thoughts and secular prayers for you both, patient and carer.

·     "I wish to thank you, with Maureen, for your relentless effort and energy to improve the status of mental health - an advocate for those who suffer. It has been tough for you but you have kept on with determination and compassion. For myself and our small mental health community I acknowledge and appreciate your tireless effort over many years. Thank you, Philip."

·     "You are in our thoughts, Philip, and have our admiration for all the positive things you have done to improve life for people with mental illness."

· ·  "Thinking of you and what a wonderful advocate you are for mental health for all. Thanks for all you do."

·     "Philip was a friendly and inclusive person and very persistent  in his work for mental health and in the formation of Friends of Mt Painter. He will leave a big gap and I will miss seeing him on his shopping forays at the local shops and market."

··   "We are missing you at our meetings, thank you so much for inspiring us to get more involved through your extensive work and persistence to help people with mental health issues." 

··        "Philip, I thank you most sincerely for being you. It has been a real pleasure getting to know you over the past few years. Your encouragement and enthusiasm have inspired many of us....We were united in a valiant cause which will endure. May the good Lord watch over you and bring you peace and joy in your remaining days.”

·     "It has been a pleasure and privilege to know you, work with you these past 20 years or so. You have achieved much for Carers and Consumers, bloodied a few bureaucratic noses and given heart to our online membership. Rest assured we will carry on your good work, my Warrior Friend."

·     Addressed to both Philip and Maureen; "We are in awe at the task you have of navigating the complex health system and all the interpretations required to get some clarity on numerous issues. We are sorry that Philip is so seriously ill and we wish him some much needed good news and a respite and ease from his many symptoms..."

·     "I am so sorry to hear that Philip is not doing so well.  Please pass on our thoughts and well wishes to him.  He has done such a lot work and been so passionate for Mental Health reform and the cause of those with a mental illness both locally and nationally, hopefully we will see some positive outcomes this year from the work he has initiated especially on the closure of BHRC and other local issues.  We are thinking of Philip, you and all your family at this time."

·     "We want to express our very best sincere wishes to you both... We cannot pretend to know what trials you are going through. However please know that we have, are and will be thinking of you both in these testing times. We hope the future holds some good outcomes for you both. Our love is extended to you. Rest in peace."

·     "I can only echo other comments that have been made regarding his amazing spirit and seemingly endless inner strength as an example to all."

·     “I look forward to celebrating Philip's life. He was an inspiration to me and I told him so yesterday."

·      "To have my close family near, to have said what I wanted to say, to be in peaceful surroundings, and to go quickly at the end. I think it is what I would have wanted for myself."

·     "So sorry to hear of Philip's passing - he was always such an kind, energetic and enthusiastic person, and a wonderful neighbour."

·     “I feel very sad to learn of the passing of Phillip. I must admit it was only recently I had contact via the Non Geeks but he impressed with friendliness and consideration of others."

·     "I loved working with you (in the Public Service) among all those (troubled) people. You helped me see things differently and gave me advice and strategies to help me cope with them. I have used it lots through the years and still do...I will never forget your support (in a personal matter). I can never thank you enough for your support and understanding or tell you how much it has meant... Thank you for being my friend, and for everything you have taught me and all the help, guidance, advice and assistance you have given me over the (many) years I have known you. I will continue to use it."

·     (From a school friend in the Junior Class of 1953 at St. Augustine's College) ."Even back then (in 1953) Philip was well respected an acknowledged for his academic prowess and being a genuinely decent fellow doing it a bit tough. I will remember Philip with great fondness for his friendship. Philip followed the College Motto "Tolle Lege", Take up and Read."

·    "Thanks Philip for inspiring so many people, including myself. You'll be greatly missed."

·    "He was a larger-than-life figure for me when we first met, and continued to be always so engaging."

·       "Despite all Philip's endeavours in life it was mostly family that we spoke of when we caught up.”

·       "We felt so moved by having Phillip call us last evening; I felt it was a gift to us.  Like our lovely daughter, he is facing death with not only courage but generosity.  Ghastly as cancer is, it can provide a person with the opportunity to prepare for the inevitable and to say 'goodbyes'.  As with her, there was not a scrap of self pity in Phillip's conversation.  I imagine in the 'wee small hours' there may be fear and anxiety and maybe even some anger but grasping all that life still offered seemed to be his and her driving spirit."

·       Philip was the youngest in the class but clever ...I will certainly miss him but he will always be in my memory as part of the famous or infamous 1953 Junior Class...  Philip lived his life with regard to the needs of others and that is a life well lived."

·    “Philip also expressed joy in the company and service of his friends. His service to others is what set him apart. It was genuine and unrestrained. Even in his last days he was concerned to organise for the benefit of others.”

··   "Both of you have led very busy and involved lives but always within the embracing of as small an ecological footprint as possible. There's been the richness of living surrounded by natural materials, books, culture, music, creativity, art and sharing your lives with and for others.... I hope you can draw strength from happy memories especially those in nature and from others' appreciation for all your contributions.”

     “We have not known Philip for many years, but we do know what a keen supporter of many good causes he has been, and what a devoted family man he was."

 ··   “ I admired and respected Philip. Besides our shared interest in products of Peugeot SA,  I will miss our occasional conversations over many years where we discussed our different takes on the changing landscape of the of the information age.    I'm essentially a geek and  I treasured Philips's perspective because he was so down to earth and practical in the use of technology. " 

· ·   "We will miss Philip’s strength and enthusiasm (for mental health reform) and we will have to push on in his memory.

  ·  "I will remember him for his happy disposition, kind heart, patient soul and non-judgmental attitude."

 ·   "While few of our present (Friends of Mt Painter) members knew Philip, we do know of the enormous contribution he made in establishing our group and campaigning for and working on the reserve." 

  ·  "He was always cheerful and kind, ready to help with any difficulty, whether relating to a computer or a need for physical assistance...I also enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of talking with him; he had a thoughtful view on most issues."

 ··  "It was in 2003 that I again met Philip,during a reunion of our year at
      Saint Augustine's College in Cairns, after a period of 46 years when we
had lost contact.  I consider it a blessing that I was reunited with Philip, and we enjoyed recalling old times and the paths we each had taken.."

· ·  "I'll miss Philip's kind, gentle, lilting voice - "Ill go and get Maureen" - when I phoned."

· ·  "The 'Philip Bulletins clearly show Philip will be missed by many beyond his family and close friends."

· ·  "Philip will be sorely missed. He was a good and tireless advocate for Mental Health and left a great legacy."

· · " I realise now that it was Philip working with (name) at the ABS. I was a client of their expertise with Monthly Labour Force Surveys. Philip was also so polite and gentle in his demeanour. Recently, with the Non-Geeks group, his efforts were outstanding. I and we will miss the care and good efforts of Philip."

· ·  "Philip will be missed by al of those who have had the privilege of knowing him and been touched by his boundless energy and integrity."

· ·  "Philip was a frequent and respected member of our (Coffee'n'Chat computer) group and will be sorely missed."

     "I thank you, Philip, for all your hard work and tireless effort over many years,... taking on the systemic problems and issues that threaten the rights and well-being of people with mental health problems."

     "I remember Philip as a gentle, kind, loving, unassuming and non-judgemental man. He was always interested in what we had to say and I felt a great fondness towards him."

      "He certainly made a great contribution to his special organisations in the community during his life time, a life well lived by a good and gentle man."