The General Store

Epilogue

Thornton Beach at midnight is my haven, it's when my world is at its calmest. It's playlist is songs of the waves and the wind carries secrets from long ago. It is here I am at my safest, sitting beside my brothers and being held close by the country I love.

A lot has changed since those years I was able to just sit on the beach with my heart in the sand and toes in the water. I made it through Vietnam, as did my future husband and two of my three brothers. Even though we lost Jarrah all those years ago, he hasn't been forgotten. Life was sending constant reminders of him, whether it be a bird, drifting in the sky or an autumnal breeze that kissed our cheeks, Jarrah is always there. Ace never fell in love again, Post traumatic stress really took a toll on his life, but he still managed to raise his son into one of the most successful people we've ever met. George is a heart surgeon, he travells Australia performing surgeries in tiny outback towns and huge cities.
Dover married a girl called Sarah from Brisbane, the two of them went on to have four kids, Cole, Michael, Ashleigh and Claire. The 6 of them moved down to Melbourne after a job Sarah received as a zookeeper.
I miss my two brothers, sometimes I ring them up just to hear them say hello.

As for Pat and I, our millions and millions of dreams swirl in our heads like shooting stars. Every night we chat and contemplate what life would be like if there hadn't been a Vietnam war, if Pat hadn't been an Australian cricketer, if Zoe and Don weren't Australian cricketers and if Violet wasn't a criminal lawyer, but every night we agree that we wouldn't change anything for the world. How lucky we are to be a part of it all, and how lucky we are to be able to spend it together?

My Mum and Dad left the General Store to Pat and I, in 1986 when they retired. Although we are still touring with the Australian cricket team, due to commentating duties, the General Store is still run 24/7. Being able to wake up to a magnificent Thornton Beach sunrise every morning and end the day with a spectacular sunset is a blessing in itself. Pat and I stroll down the beach, pounding the whereabouts of our children and our grandchildren. Don was always somewhere, making 100 runs or stumping the top order of a cricket team. Zoe was either bowling faster than the wind or touring with her team. Violet was standing on a podium in front of a murderer or something crazy like that and here we were reminiscing about a time that flew by very quickly.

What a life, I got to live.
What a world, I got to see.
What a man, I got to marry.
And what beautiful kids, I got to raise.

It's not over yet. I still have so many games of cricket to attend, so many Christmases to cater for, so many children I get to cuddle and so many successes I get to witness. Zoe had just had her first child, a little boy who they named Jamison and Don and Caitlin welcomed their twins, Daisy and Xavier. Violet had a little girl, Rosie, about 2 years ago, but the man she was with left almost as soon as he was told of her existence.
Through the chaos of touring and the mayhem of life, all of us have managed to stay quite tightly bounded. Every night there is a phone call from someone, somewhere, describing their where-abouts and anything else. It's those happy moments over the phone that I enjoy the most when we're not together but when we are it's another story for another day.

Knowing that something so powerful as love could be formed in something as simple as a general store really astounds me even to this day, but I guess it's the simple places that magic really occurs.
Every time the bell on the door chimes, I am instantly taken back to their first time our eyes met, to the day my life changed, to the day everything fell right into place.
The day he sat down and watched the sea, in my General Store.