Colin’s life shows how faith can provide strength through difficult times and lead to meaningful connections and new chapters.
Colin’s life shows how faith can provide strength through difficult times and lead to meaningful connections and new chapters.Colin recalls going along to Sunday School at the church with his sister Carol from age four. Later, he took up the important role of pumping the pipe organ each Sunday for Mr Phillips the organist, when he was 10, as sadly Colin had not been gifted with a choir voice. But this job earnt him two shillings each week!
Colin said his family were regular church goers. At 15, he became an apprentice printer and later, on his 21st birthday in 1960, he married Barbara after a nice courtship, whom he had met at school. Colin said up to this point he always felt like God had a hand in his life and they always attended church regularly throughout their life together.
They moved to Australia in 1972. Sadly, five years later, Barbara was then diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 38. It was tough going for their family. Colin asked God, ‘Why Barbara, why us?’.
Barbara was going to a day respite care centre, and it was here they met a couple in a very similar boat, Lesley and her husband Pete, who had had a stroke and could barely communicate with onset dementia. Soon, Colin and Lesley’s’ respective partners entered aged care in the same suburb. Over the next three years of visiting their loved ones, Colin and Lesley became very close friends as they were going through such similar hardships and heartaches together. They were really a big support to each other throughout this period.
Sadly, Colin’s wife Barbara passed away quite suddenly, and only six weeks later so did Lesley’s husband Pete. Over the next five months, Colin and Lesley continued seeing each other daily and supporting each other. They made the decision to get married. Colin strongly believes that the Lord had something to do with their meeting and had bought them together intentionally.