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Info received from Alan Price....1430h 17 Jan '07
I spoke to Darcy Tillbrook (Staffy) on
16 Jan 07 and he is in good spirits and is still the old Staffy. When I rang
his bedside, his son Mark answered but I didn't realise this and said,
'G'day Staffy, you old bugger, how are you?' His son immediately replied,
Oh, you want to speak to my dad.".
His son knew immediately who "Staffy"
was, which surprised me. I can't bring myself to call him anything but
Staffy. Even when he was CSM and RSM, I still called him Staffy. behind his
back of course, a junior knows his place in the scheme of things, but
everyone in 4RAR knows who we mean when we mention Staffy.
It is so very sad that we have another
one of our 4RAR warrior mates not too well. I am certainly feeling a little
older at this minute to know that another of my mentors and heroes is not
traveling too well. Staffy is taking it well and in his words," At 84 years
of age I have had a good innings and will always remember my 4RAR".
Staffy informs me that he has had
another series of tests done which indicate that he may have some months
left rather than weeks but he said that he is riddled with bone cancer and
can only accept his fate.
He has had many visitors from the boys
at Townsville Bob Penman is continually by his side. He had five visitors
waiting to see him as I finished my call. I don't know how true this is but
when Daryl Jenkin and Frank Galvin visited him, Daryl stood guard with his
Bren Gun while Frank and Staffy did an immediate stocktake of all the bed
linen, found a surplus of Sheets, Bed, Linen, immediately converted them to
Handkerchiefs, Linen and wrote them off.
Staffy has received telephone calls
from all over Australia and of course would love to hear from all.
He can be contacted at the Mater
Hospital, Townsville: (07) 4727 4320, please
call him.
I spoke briefly with Darcy at 1500h today and found him in good voice and buoyed by the prospect of being around a bit longer than was first thought a few days ago, he's been surprised by the volume of calls he's received form all over the country but I'm sure he'd love to hear from you, especially if you're from Delta Coy....ed |
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