Chapter 2: HOME IN HARD TIMES

After a lifetime of seeking a home, I felt incredibly fortunate to have found the person who offered me that exact feeling—and the perfect house for us to bask in the warmth of this feeling with which we were so lucky to share.

Many nights were spent simply enjoying our space and each other, staying up late talking, playing board games and listening to music together. I’d often wake to my partner at the end of the bed with an acoustic guitar in-hand ready to sing and play for me. We had picnics in bed, movie nights, warm baths with champagne and strawberries, candlelit meals and an array of experiences to treasure for an eternity. Though, this all came painfully close to an end just a few months in.

In March 2020, the world was dealing with the impact of the newly discovered Covid-19 that had made its way to Australia. Businesses were shutting up shop for safety and the general public was encouraged to stay home and self-isolate. Easter weekend was already looking grim, and my partner had been feeling unwell for the entirety of the week. Saturday arrived and his condition had worsened. After calling a doctor to our home, we were hoping for the antibiotics he’d prescribed to act fast, but the disease my partner was contending with was aggressive and relentless.

By midnight I was on the phone to emergency services, my partner became unconscious, and paramedics in hazmat suits arrived soon after. The time between their arrival and departure felt as though a hurricane had swiftly swept through, collecting all that I cared for, leaving havoc in its wake.

I was not allowed to join my partner in the ambulance because of Covid-19 restrictions. He was rushed to the ICU, sedated and given a lumbar puncture before going into an induced coma. No visitors were allowed until he was able to return a negative Covid-19 result which took 24 hours. During this time, he was diagnosed with meningococcal disease; the disease I’d been taught to fear since childhood. It takes 1 in 3 lives and often leaves survivors with missing limbs, loss of hearing and/or loss of eyesight, as well as memory issues and other problems linked to damage of the brain. In my partner’s case, it was bacterial which I’d come to learn was the most feared of its kind.

He was treated with strong antibiotics via intravenous for a week in hospital. Visiting him on the day he was to be woken from the coma was both relieving and daunting during the lead up. I had been anxiously waiting for 24 hours yet felt haunted by the prospect of him waking with severe brain damage, or potentially not waking at all. To this day, I am in utter disbelief and feel endless gratitude for the paramedics, doctors and nurses who all contributed to the saving of my partner, Rowan.

Rowan now contends with lifelong side-effects of the disease caused by the trauma he experienced to his brain from swelling; one of the potential complications of the disease. Though cognitively he is seemingly unharmed, the physical symptoms are severe and often debilitating. The impact of this has been devastating for him, and us both, mentally and financially—but he is alive.

He is home.

♱ Susannah ♱