ONLY THE STRONG by MIDNIGHT OIL. Story by David Oke.

Belmont, Geelong August 2024

She had only lived in two places – the home of her birth, childhood and growing up and then the home where she was the wife, mum and home maker. Always strong willed, self-centred yet living with her dog and by herself for more than twenty years. She was always fiercely independent and quite deaf, but in amazingly good health for 98 years of age.

Her whole life was changed forever when a middle of the night visit to the bathroom included a mishap of falling over the dog and fracturing her pelvis in a couple of places. The consequence was a visit to hospital, a rehab hospital and a loss of self confidence in relation to mobility and life in general. Another consequence was the mutual agreement to leave home and move into an aged care facility.

As expected, this was not an easy transition. A search found the best place possible and it was miraculous that a vacancy was available almost straight away with three rooms to choose from. She hated the move. It was a loss of choices. It was leaving her beloved dog with someone else. It was not home. It was a change to routines and the commencement of new things to learn.

The common complaints related to food – the servings are too frequent and too big and that she was quite happy to stay in her room and read the paper, do crosswords, watch her T.V. and snooze in the chair.

One day she was in a really bad mood and was getting tired of, as she said, ‘One more day of eating and sleeping!’

When I’m locked in my room
I just want to scream
And I know what they mean
(One more day of eating and sleeping)

One of my favorite albums of all time is Midnight Oil’s 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 from 1982 and she had just quoted a line from Track 2 – Only The Strong.

The context of her life could be read into other lyrics from the song. Her refusal to socialise due to her deafness was often leading to the ‘Bored, Bored, Bored’ statement.

Look at me, won’t you look at me
Back once more at the point of no return

After a couple of months it had sunk in that she was not going home and that the family home is to be sold to cover the accommodation costs of her new address. Begrudgingly, this is the new future. She’d reached the point of no return.

January 2026

A year and a half later there have been some changes. Her short-term memory has holes and the same questions are repeated. She’s happy, or as happy as she gets. Still befriending her TV, loving the flowers in the window box and the visiting sparrows, pigeons and rainbow lorikeets that daily show up to feed on the seed blocks we leave outside her window.

There’s a lot more positive talk. The staff are lovely, they don’t force me to do things, the food is good, my room is warm. She turns 100 in a few months. She’s aware that she’s lucky, especially with her health. She still gets the daily paper and knows that people much younger than her have experienced a shorter life. There was a mention that an Australian drummer, Rob Hirst, from Midnight Oil, had passed away due to pancreatic cancer and he was only 70.

Only the strong. Strong in battling on in your senior years, strong in keeping your mind occupied while in your room (not locked!) and being strong and determined to make the most of what time is still to come.

Stereo Story 872

Rob Hirst 1955 – 2026

See also, Midnight Oil stories by Andrea Gillum, Leo Grogan and, yes, another by David Oke.