- Recording of Jean's testimony.

 

Thirty years ago, in April thirty years ago, I had a short leave to be with my Mum, who had lost my Dad and so I left New Guinea and just came home for a couple of months. My mother had moved to near where my sister lived and I stayed with my Mum and went to a different doctor and this one was a Christian. I mentioned my problem and he said if you were in this country I would say it was your age [I was 51], but he said I play golf with a consultant and he said “I’ll get you an early appointment.” So I saw this consultant and he did various tests, and it ended up I had cancer. I had an appointment for surgery very quickly after that, but it meant I stayed home longer. After I had what was called a total hysterectomy, many of the nurses said to me, “You know, you’ve had twenty years added to your life”. And so I just thank The Lord because the work I was involved in needed people to stay long term. But I went back in 1987 and our visas were to be renewed and we had a director who was responsible for the support side of our work, not the translation, the linguistic side, and he decided that we were going to have to do without ex-patriots in various departments. So many of our visas were not renewed. Many of my colleagues were allowed a year with their visas, but mine expired in one month. Can you imagine that – one month? So I put my house up for sale, but my boss I was working with at that time, I was more like an accountant and his assistant manager. We worked in the area that handles all the maintenance of the buildings and everything, and I was training some girls in book-keeping, and they weren’t ready.