Yesterday morning at Heritage there was an unusual amount of bustle around reception.  A lot of staff were milling about.  Richard was with a circle of residents watching a word game on a white board.  One of the staff members came up as I was unlocking Richard's wheelchair and said someone had passed away that morning and a little ceremony was about to commence as his body was removed to the white hearse waiting outside (if it had been black, I would've known).

The deceased was Doug Anthony.  He was a politician, a deputy premier and long term member of the Nationals when it had been the Country party.  He came from wealthy farming stock.  They'd donated the land for the Tweed Regional Gallery.  He was a second generatio politician and a bit of a big deal in his day. 

I knew him as the very tall man with the hatchet face who arrived a little after Richard.  When he first came he was walking.  He'd read the newspaper.  He had an air about him.  I was under the impression he was there to give his wife a break except he never returned home.  Before long he was using a walker but would still be spotted sitting alone at a table reading the paper.  Then he was in a wheelchair.  He'd paddle his feet to move himself around, much as Richard did at first.  

Then I didn't see him for awhile.  I'd heard by then he'd been a politician but I didn't know of what 'rank', whether he'd been the a local councillor or an MP.  And I didn't much care.  He was a resident like Richard.  Richard accused him once of hitting or poking him in the back of the hand.  I don't know whether it was true or not.  There was no mark but Richard was incensed and vowed to get back at him.  By this time, with Richard's hallucinations and loosening grasp of reality, it was better to just distract than make an issue of it, especially as I could see no evidence he'd been hurt.  And the 'getting back' has never been part of Richard's personality as I've known him.

The last time I saw Doug Anthony his wife, Margot was wheeling him around the path.  Richard and I and Mikaela were on Richard's patio.  Margot tried to get Doug to pat Mikaela, which he managed with her help.  "Isn't she a lovely dog?" Margot asked and all Doug could say was waahwhahshiseh.  

The decline was swift and the end I think would've been welcome.