After the honey moon finished Nancy and Tony rented a two bedroom flat in Fairfield, Tony found a job as a chemical engineer in cement company at Wetherill Park (Wetherill Park is industrial area in Sydney), Tony was working in a different shift (morning, afternoon and night shift). Tony has to leave Nancy by herself at night on some days. Nancy was very happy in her life as Tony was not only a nice person but he was a real gentleman, Nancy and Tony used to go every weekend to Nancy’s parents’ house so they can spend a couple of hours with them, enjoy their time. Then Linda was studying to be a pharmacist, she ended up falling in love with her college mate William. William was studying to be a pharmacist too and his parents were rich. Linda found William as her ideal husband for her as he can give her the life she’s always dreamed about. Nancy decided to find a job as she started to feel bored every day, every day she’d wake up, and cook the food for dinner, watch T.V. for a few hours. Nancy had applied for many jobs till she found a job as an accountant in a fabric company. After 2 years from Nancy marriage, Linda and William decided to have an engagement party at Nancy’s parents’ house.
Linda’s mum organised for the party making the cake, buying the drinks, inviting all the close friends, relatives and neighbours. Nancy came with Tony to the party; they met Williams parent’s, everyone was happy, talking, smiling and laughing. Nancy’s dad was in the back yard smoking a cigarette, suddenly he screamed out in pain from his chest, he fell on to the floor clutching his chest gasping for air.
Everyone at the party ran over to him. Nancy looked over at Tony, screaming “call an ambulance quickly” her dad started to breathe very slowly, his wife tried to give him CPR many times but it failed, his face was pale and he was unconscious.
After 10 minutes the ambulance came to take him to the Fairfield hospital, Nancy and Tony rushed to the car and rushed over to the hospital, while Nancy’s mum went with William and Linda.
Nancy’s dad died after he arrived at the hospital by a few minutes; everyone was shocked out of their minds as they were happy and suddenly they had just lost a very important member of their family. Nancy and Linda were crying and sobbing while Nancy’s mum didn’t even move or talk, in fact she was completely shocked and for some unknown reason she didn’t believe or realise that her husband had just died and left her for ever.
After 2 hours they all went to Nancy’s parents’ house, they all sat crying and sobbing, they didn’t believe or expect what had just happened. Tony told Nancy that “they had to leave”.
There is not enough space to spend the night here. The next day Nancy and Tony took the next 4 Days off from work so they could get the funeral organised. Tony called 5 different funeral agents so he could ask them how much it would cost for the funeral, he got different quotes and the cheapest one was $6500.
Tony took Nancy to her parents’ house and asked her mum if she had enough money to cover the cost of the funeral. Nancy’s mum replied “all I got now is just $1500. Nancy said” I got $2800 in my bank account”. Tony then said “I will pay the rest; the funeral will be in 3 days”.
On the funeral day Tony took Nancy and her family to the grave yard, Nancy was crying, sobbing and she was shaking as this was the first time for her to go to a grave yard and watch theme burry a person.
Her dad was lying inside a coffin. In Nancy’s mind all the good memories playing in her head of when she was little playing with her father, when her dad took them fishing, when they used to hire a house on the sea shore every summer. Nancy had a strong bond with her father. She couldn’t believe she had just lost him forever.
After 8 months from her father’s death, Linda and William tied the knot, they moved to Queensland (a state far away from Sydney, 15 hours driving by car). Nancy was trying to save money along with Tony so they could put some money as a deposit so they could by a house. After 4 months Nancy’s mum died in a car accident, it was a slow and painful death.
Nancy felt very lonely, as she had just realised that now she had no parents and Linda moved to another state and she’s working 10 hours a day as a pharmacist. After all Linda was very busy and only called Nancy in emergencies or ever so often (3-4 minutes every few weeks). Nancy and Tony saved around $40,000 and they asked different banks about a home loan so they could get the best deal.
They wanted to buy a brick house with 3 bed rooms, with a garage. The average price in Fairfield was about, $430,000 they took the loan for $390,000. They took the loan for 25 years, the minimum payment was $740, every week, which means they need 2 incomes as 1 income was not enough and could not pay other expenses e.g. bills (phone, electricity, water, gas, food, clothes, petrol, Medical and insurance).
When Nancy and Tony had moved to the new house the decided to do some renovation, as the kitchen and bathroom were very old and small, also they had to re-paint the house again. They asked the bank for a renovation loan for $18,000 and the loan was approved. Now Nancy and Tony were stretched financially and it was very hard for them to save any money, as most of the moneys were sent to the home loan and other general expenses.
After 4 months from buying the new house Nancy turned out pregnant, she was very happy but was left alone most of the time, due to the nature of her husband’s job and him taking different shifts. Nancy now has to go once or twice a month, so she can follow up with the gynaecology to make sure that the baby was healthy.
When she was 5 months in to her pregnancy she went to her doctor to have an ultra-sound done on the baby. She looked on the screen and saw the bay inside her stomach moving, she was very happy. The doctor asked her if ‘do you want to find out the gender of the baby”? Nancy replied “whatever, but I wold be more happy if it was a girl”.
Nancy went home on the day, she was really happy; she said to Tony “we will have a girl”. Tony gave her a hug and a peck on the cheek and said “she will be a very pretty girl just like her mother”. Although Nancy’s body was getting bigger and bigger due to her pregnancy, but she was still attractive. Nancy was working very hard and everyone at her work place respected and admired her, her big smile and her attitude were the biggest reasons why people admired her so much.
Now Nancy is 8 months in her pregnancy and she can hardly move; she struggles to go to work every day. She started to suffer from back pain. She went to the doctor who asked her to sleep on her back till she gives birth. She went to her work and asked the manager for a year maternity leave, the boss approved and said ‘’take care of yourself and the baby”.
Now Nancy spends every day in bed and she was really upset as she can’t move like she normally would be able to, her husband was a great support to her.
Every day he would finish work; goes home straight away, prepares the food, wash the dishes, and clean the house. Tony was happy to help Nancy because he really truly was in love with her and the baby. The only problem they have is they were very tight on money. As Nancy did not work anymore and they have only one income (Tony works).
Now it is 2007, and Nancy just had her baby, they named her Nada.
Nancy is enjoying being a mother, she was really happy and she never asked for anything more because this was all she ever really wanted. Tony and Nada were all that mattered to Nancy because they were her life. Her back pain has started to ease after she had Nada, the only problem that Nancy had was that they were struggling financially as in 2007 they world financial crisis had just started.
The share market had collapsed and that had forced many companies to close down or cut the bonus and overtime. Tony’s basic salary was not a lot to begin with, but he had a good bonus and over time.
Tony was one of them as his boss, told him they don’t make enough profit and that they have to cut their bonus and their overtime.
