Catching up with Peter

Recently at a function I caught up with my old friend Peter Clyburn. We talked and laughed about everything and nothing, as we have often done. Suddenly Peter was ready to go home.

I was surprised he left so early, but assumed he was tired. The following day he accidentally rang me – pressed a wrong digit – so I asked him if he’d been okay. No, he’d been exhausted. Needed to go home to rest.

I remembered all the times with Peter in the past. Originally I met him in Papua New Guinea, where I was working on a mission station before getting a teaching job in a nearby high school. Peter, also a teacher, just turned up at the door one evening as Glen and I were having coffee after dinner. We quickly warmed to him and he became part of our social network in PNG. Little did we know it but he was to remain good friends with both of us.

When my position at the boys’ high school ended, Peter recommended me for a three month vacancy in the girls’ school where he was teaching. I was given this position and Peter and I spent many hours together discussing the issues that arose for us as young Christians. The school was very beautiful and that whole time had an idyllic quality. (The school, by the way, is the setting for a large part of my latest novel, Lantern Light, with the permission of the then-headmistress.)

To my surprise, when I left at the end of the year, Peter also left – but after returning to his home in Sydney, moved to Brisbane to attend the Bible College run by my church. I was, for a time, living with my mother at Burleigh, and we had many happy weekends as Peter, ever popular, brought some of his new friends down for weekends and we had wonderful sunlit days swimming and picnicking. Out of this was birthed our ‘famous’ New Zealand trip, which I will no doubt talk about down the track, as it was a chapter of miracles.

All this time, Peter was the one striding out ahead of us, planning, full of energy.

Then he married lovely Marion, his ideal wife. Together they did missionary work in several countries. Always with Peter the energetic leader.

So why did Peter get so tired the other day? Admittedly my own energy levels are not what they used to be, but . . .

Peter has Parkinson’s Disease, a cruel disease which severely depletes his energy and effects various other physical areas such as balance. He is still as dear and kind as ever, but he’s frail.

It is said that suffering makes one bitter or better. I miss the flamboyant, active Peter, but he now emanates a humility, gentleness and unselfishness beyond anything he had in earlier days. And being less active, he has had time to use one of his other gifts – writing. Recently he had published the first book of a trilogy: his well-written, often hilarious autobiography. So he continues to achieve, to reach out.

I have included this explanation with his consent. He prefers people to know. It’s easier for him.