XII The Death of the Cat

Warning: this chapter made me cry.

Lucy's aunt was the meanest person you could ever meet.

Three weeks before he fell off the roof and cracked his head open, Lucy had rung her Uncle John. They marveled to each other how someone as mean as Aunty Bernie, could turn out to be one of the loveliest people to know. He told her that when they were young and invited friends over, it could be a disaster. If she was there, they could count on her to behave like a demon, nasty and embarrassing. She was an epileptic and took the same medication for years and years and years. She was a hypochondriac; she could become ill at will. She spoiled so many family occasions, by vomiting at weddings or having migraines at birthdays, she was so terrible, Lucy was scared to death of her when she was a little girl. The worm just about ignored her.

One day, the worm got a phone call from one of Bernie's two friends. She was so concerned about her that she felt someone from the family needed to do something to help her, she didn't think Bernie would make it through the winter in the squalor she was living in. Uncle John had died, so the worm was obliged to step in. Lucy had grown up by now and they went over to see her; I'll describe what her flat was like in a moment...

They took her to a very good hospital. Her room had a view of Sydney Harbour and with some proper food and care, her senility disappeared, and her health got better. AND they changed the medication she had been taking for epilepsy. Her whole personality changed. For all those years, nearly her whole life, the medication for epilepsy had been poisoning her system, without it she became the sweetest, dearest little old lady. Lucy loved her.

It took six months, once or twice a week, to clean out her flat. She had an entire room devoted to paper, newspapers mostly, sixteen years' worth. It was obviously a new form of recycling, she never threw one away. Lucy waded knee deep through this sea of paper, she couldn't just bundle it up and chuck it; there were insurance papers and important letters that had to be gone though. Lucy found an old note, written when Bernie was a school girl; when she grew up she imagined a happy life as a wife and mother, like many little girls. But I tell you what, if anyone was destined to be an old maid, it was Aunty Bernie. Lucy asked her once during one of their weekly phone calls why she had never married? Bernie told her that when she was young, all the young men had gone to war (WWII), and so many never came home, there weren't enough men to go round. She never found one for herself. Wow, no one would have married such a mean person, and any child she might have had would have been a sorry one. When she got better she would sometimes come to help clean out the flat, she grew very fond of Lucy’s little monster, William (he had improved somewhat over the years).

Lucy had the job of cleaning out the bathroom. There were many plastic containers, with white socks and stockings that had been left to soak for I don't know how many months or years, and half empty containers of laundry bleach. The bathtub was the rubbish bin, and all the tiles had fallen off the wall, staining everything brown. Lucy found it amusing how many little pieces of soap were amongst the mess, you know how you never know what to do with a bar of soap when it gets too small to hold?  Well apparently, you save them all up in the bathtub for later use. Lucy wondered how she even fitted in the shower recess, with all the containers of soaking underwear.

The dingy kitchen (the worm’s job) was indescribable. That Bernie hadn't died of salmonella poisoning was a wonder. She used to feed a neighbouring cat that she had befriended; the bench was covered in old tin cans of cat food. She hadn't put them in the rubbish; she had filled them with water and left them all over the kitchen. I'm not sure that she would actually have been able to cook anything, it took a while to actually find the stove, and the grill was thick with grease. The washing up had never been done. The pantry was scary, I think she had bred a new species of spider in its bowels; they looked very similar to red backs, except they lacked the red stripe on their back. Lucy opened an old tin of sardines to the give to the cat, the sardines in the tin had turned green, the cat looked at Lucy to say, "you've got to be kidding?", turned tail and ran! I don't think it ever came back!

Lucy found the vacuum cleaner in the bottom of the linen cupboard but when she tried to introduce it to the dust that was a foot thick on the wall under the bed, it let out a shriek and carked it.

Lucy tidied up the lounge room, ducking for cover from the multitude of moths. She untangled all the balls of wool, (Bernie used to knit) and rewound old wooden cotton reels that were spun with pure silk. She threw away safety pins, old cough lollies and leaking pens. Lucy wanted her to know that they hadn't just chucked her stuff away, that they had done it respectfully. In a dust laden cupboard, Lucy found complete sets of leather-bound books, all the classic books that have ever been written, he blew the dust off them to keep, a life time's worth of reading.

Bernie didn't believe in putting clothes away, the garage was like one huge laundry pile, they took many, many bags to St Vincent De Paul. She was a great reader; they carted away cartons of paperbacks books. So many puzzle books went to the recycling center, along with all the newspapers, they had to hire a truck to cart it all away!

Bernie just could never throw anything away. Poor Aunty Bernie, to have been so sadly neglected all her life, because her medication made her into a person that other people couldn't bear to be around, what a sad tragedy.

Will you be able to believe that with new medication, she became a pleasure to know?

They found her a nice, sunny hostel near the sea, where she lived for another 10 years, Lucy enjoyed a long distance phone call from her every week. Aunty Bernie loved hearing all about the farm animals, especially when baby ducks hatched out, and the baby birds in their nests. Lucy even managed to persuade her to come and visit once, her only holiday in decades. She stayed in a Bed & Breakfast a few km's away, where she was very comfortable.

But there was something in her aura that seemed to cause chaos. During her holiday, Lucy had to suffer through the 2nd worst day of her life. When Aunty Bernie arrived, she showed her all over the farm, two of the cows came up the hill, but Lucy's milking cow, Mooney didn't follow. Lucy thought she wouldn't be far away. I can't help but feel if Aunty Bernie hadn't been there, Lucy would have gone across the hill to look for her, but it was Lucy’s job to take care of Bernie and couldn't walk off and leave her. They had a picnic down at the creek with all the little birds.

The next day, was very hot. Lucy’s Cat had fallen very ill. This was a real live cat, named Spider Cat, she had lived with Lucy for many years, since long before she had met the picnic rug. She needed to be taken to the vet, about an hour’s drive away. Spider Cat was in the car and they were just about to leave, when the picnic rug came over and said that Mooney was dead.

Lucy felt sick.

Mooney had somehow tangled her legs up in the barbed wire fence. I don't know why she had tried to jump over the fence, maybe she was trying to get to a bull on the other side, or protect her calf from a snake, Wayland thought a fox had chased her.

It's terrible to imagine how Lucy felt when she saw Mooney's bloated body strangled in the fence. But she couldn't stop, she had Spider Cat in the car with Aunty Bernie, they had to go to the vet. The vet was very kind, he gave Spider cat an intravenous fluid as she was badly dehydrated. He took a blood sample and gave Lucy some tablets to give to her. But he said things were not looking good.

Lucy had Spider Cat for 16 years, she had saved her life. When she was young with no one to love her, Spider Cat had come into her life and given her something to love. She was her familiar. They used to go for walks in the night together. When they lived in the city, she would trot along the footpath behind Lucy, and when they moved to the county, they went for rambling walks over hillsides, sometimes they just sat beside each out in the garden and at night they watched the stars together. Spider cat had her full nine lives, she been run over, been a city cat, a country cat, seen Lucy meet the picnic rug and have 3 children. She never liked any of them much. She only loved Lucy. Once she jumped up on to the bed, savagely bit the picnic rug on the big toe that protruding from the end of the covers and fled out of their flat. Lucy should have taken notice of her opinion; it would have saved her a lot of grief. The family always tried to get her like them, they would give her dinner, they loved her, they greatly respected her; but she was a one-person cat, she only wanted Lucy for herself, she never really appreciated Lucy having a family to love as well.

When Aunty Bernie and Lucy eventually got home (Lucy had to teach swimming in the afternoon) the vet had called to say Spider Cat had an advanced cancer and she was going to die.

Despite this horrible day, Lucy had to carry on with life and looking after Aunty Bernie on her little holiday, which she was glad to do, it didn't give time to dwell on her sadness. Plenty of sadness was to come as she nursed Spider Cat through her last weeks. Spider took up residence in the bathroom on the cool tiles. Lucy told her she was the best friend she ever had. Spider Cat eventually passed away as Lucy stroked her, lying outside in the shade under the trailer. She had a proper burial with all of Lucy’s family, the witch, the worm, her sister Polly, even her little sister was there. Spider is buried in the garden, under the roots of a purple hibiscus. She has a bulb of Bella Donna, Lucy’s favourite flower the deadly nightshade, her favourite scent, planted over her. The next day the hibiscus burst into flower for the very first time.

Aunty Bernie stayed for a few days, and had a very enjoyable time. The people who ran the guest house were very kind to her, and told Lucy how sweet Bernie was. They took her to muster cattle in their ute! The two of them also stayed for two nights in the vineyards; where they were spoilt and went on beautiful country drives. Then Lucy drove her home to Sydney.

Eventually, Aunty Bernie died as Lucy held her hand. Lucy felt her spirit leave her body and float away  over the sea to heaven.