A family holiday to remember

Liz O’Shannessy understands how unpredictable life can be. Born in Melbourne, it was never part of her plan to move out to Victoria’s Wimmera region to live on a working farm.

“I grew up in Glen Waverley, and lived there for 27 years. And then I met my future husband in his lounge room three and a half hours away from where I grew up,” says Liz. “It’s a bit of a sweet story. If someone had said, ‘When you walk into this lounge room, you're going to meet a man and be married to him for 31 and have five children with him’, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“It’s been a lovely journey.”

Liz notes that when she first moved up to Banyena to be with her new husband, Rob, she was reassured that if country life wasn’t for her, Rob would happily give city life a try.

“When we were first married, Robert said, ‘If you really hate the farm, I'll sell up and we'll move back down to Melbourne’. And I thought, well, that's very brave of him to say that,” says Liz. “But no, we just love it, and the children have loved growing up here.”

Even when Rob decided to make a career change that would allow them to live wherever they like, the couple knew that Banyena was the only place for them.

“I came home and I said to Liz one day, ‘Well, I can go anywhere with my new career. Where do you want to live?’ And she said, ‘I'll think about it’. So I went away, and thought, ‘Yeah, this will be good. Maybe we’ll move down at Lorne or Torquay or maybe up to Mt Buller. Who knows? Endless possibilities!’,” says Rob. “And a few days later, she said to me, ‘I've worked out where I want to live’, and I said, ‘Great! Where, tell me!’ She said, ‘Right here’.”

Unfortunately, life had another big surprise in store for Liz in 2019, when she was diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer.

What followed was months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and for a while the treatment appeared to have been successful, with Liz receiving a clear diagnosis from the oncologist at her regular check-up last year. However, unexpected back pain led to a CAT scan just before Christmas, which, tragically, revealed an inoperable, incurable cancer.

While this news was utterly devastating for Liz, Rob and their family, Liz was determined to seek out any silver linings she could.

“I suppose the positive outcome of all of this is that at least we can plan what's going to happen as much as we can. And as awful as it is, it's not sudden, and so we can make goodbyes. And we can have lovely experiences like we did with the RFDS.”

A place of family memories

Launched in May 2021, Flying Doctor Memory Lane is a free service that supports people in end of life care to revisit a favourite destination. The service makes use of two custom-built vehicles staffed by qualified volunteer health care professionals, who are dedicated to facilitating these special trips down memory lane.

Liz and Rob first heard about Memory Lane through the palliative care team at the Wimmera Health Care Group. They submitted an enquiry online, and were contacted the next day to discuss their desired journey.

Liz’s wish was to spend time with her husband and loved ones down at Port Fairy on Victoria’s southern coast, with this small town the setting for many beautiful family memories. Until that moment, Liz didn’t believe it possible for her to undertake such a trip, but the Memory Lane team was honoured to be able to step and lend a helping hand.

So, in late January, MPC volunteers Lynette and Craig picked up Liz and Rob from their home in the Wimmera and transported them down to Port Fairy for a two night family getaway.

“It was lovely being down there and seeing everything, you know, those familiar things again,” says Liz. “We had lunch in town – fish and chips – we went up to the lighthouse and had a walk along the pier, which was just lovely.”

Liz and Rob were joined by their two youngest children and Liz’s sister, who brought up a cake that she'd made for Liz’s birthday, which had been the week before. The family were then able to just enjoy some quality time together, reminiscing and rejuvenating.

“It meant a lot actually [to be back in Port Fairy]”, says Liz. “It really, really relaxed us. We were able to just forget about everything and just be ourselves. And just to remember the lovely times we've had down there.”

While the family was spending invaluable moments together, Lynette and Craig were always close at hand to make sure that Liz was comfortable and well. Then, when the holiday came to its end, Lynette and Craig transported Liz and Rob back to Banyena and the home that the couple has shared for over three decades.

“Lynette and Craig were just absolutely magnificent,” Liz says. “We clicked straight away. They were so thoughtful and caring and compassionate. Nothing was too difficult for them. I cannot speak more highly of them.”

While Memory Lane transports are undoubtedly special for families like the O’Shannessys, they are just as powerful for the volunteers. To be able to be present on these journeys and share in these moments is both an honour and a privilege, with the power of this service being in the memories that are created for absolutely everybody involved.