REACH FOR LIFE.

If you have been praying for a baby for me and my wife you can be assured that your prayer has been answered. I prayed to the Lord for a long time for a baby but all seemed hopeless until I started to pray for a son. One evening while like that, the holy ghost was very strong around me and He told me that I will have a son. The Lord spoke telling me, you will have a son, you will have many sons and daughters. I will build a great nation from your family and you will live for ever to glorify my name through my new Church that you must build for me.

I trusted the Lord without question thinking it to come from my wife, but like Abraham and Sara in Genesis, the first born was adopted to us. A bus driver who is our friend by name Abi, came last November to us crying that his daughter who was only seventeen, dishonored herself and brought shame on the family by getting herself pregnant to a pretender, a boy student who had no intention to marry her as he promised.

He abstained from university and abandoned the girl who was heavy with baby of six months. Abi asked permission to get his daughter out from the boarding house and if I can accommodate her until the baby is born, I can adopt the baby. I gave permission and two weeks later at seven months of pregnancy both the parents came on a motor cycle with their daughter who resembled my wife’s half sister who is employed in domestic service in South Arabia.

I immediately thought without knowing, this is Janet my wife’s half sister but she was a younger girl also called Janet. Her parents gave us financial support for their daughter by the week. It was hard to support her because she is very wasteful with everything and very expensive to keep. It was worth it for the sake of the baby. While everybody expected a daughter and talked about it, I stayed silent with the computer in my room and uttered silent prayers to the Lord who revealed to me through the holy ghost that the baby is a boy.

When the baby was born on Valentine’s Day, February fourteen two thousand and five, it was a baby boy as the Lord showed me. I said to my wife, thank the Lord my son has been born at last. My wife wasn’t happy and she didn’t want him because she expected a girl but I insisted to her that we must accept him because I have prayed for a son, not a daughter. Janet’s father had second thoughts about the adoption but I laid it out to him. If you don’t adopt it to me you will be a liar because you let me down with lies.

I boarded your daughter happily but you are going back against what you said. I have observed your daughter, she is very irresponsible, she doesn’t care one bit for the baby. Look at her face, she is not herself, she is not happy to be a mother. I have the money to support the baby and I’m happy to do it because I love the baby. They contacted the relatives of the boy who made the girl pregnant but they wouldn’t hear of it.

They rejected the baby and the boy can’t get married since he has no job. He is not allowed to study anymore either. I said, God willing the baby will be adopted to us. I said later to Abi, if you will not adopt him to us let me become his godfather at the baptismal, it was agreed on but the Lord had other ideas. I followed my wife and our younger daughter to Ubay, to the farm of my in-laws where preparations were being made for the baptism.

I spent last Saturday there and Sunday morning we went to Ubay Central for the baptism at the Catholic church where the baby was baptized as Mark Lexter Lovric because neither Janet or her parents came near the church after the baby had been secretly adopted to us and we became the parents of a healthy baby son given to us from God and people acting as god-parents are a married couple in Ubay.

I thanked the Lord openly when my wife gave me the news before the baptism that my prayers for a son had been answered, so thank the Lord and praise His goodness to me in Jesus precious name for ever amen. Even though I have a son now, my two daughters will not lose any of their privileges or any of my love to their baby brother because in my house all are equal without doubt. 6/4/2005.

Dear Miron, Alyn, Gemelyn and Jacky dad, 31/1/2008.

Miron I have received your letter and I am surprised that you asked for your medical files from hospitals and from others. It is for you great amount of money 120 dollars and what do you need the files for? I knew it was hard for you in the hospitals and with Cox and Mani or as their names are. Will you sue somebody about or something else. Do you need that for other doctors in the Philippines?

Miron you were born with illness and you do not have any ground my dear to go against anything. With your illness you were very naughty and we cannot manage you. Poor grandmother had a very hard time after we left Osijek. You did sorry to say abnormal things as a child as walking to the river Drava and nearly be dead. I believe that you remember that. I am sending some copies from doctors from former Yugoslavia.

It is in Croatian, you could see that you were ill and results show of encepalograph that you have in the brain five or six places where as little pipes are in the brain blocked up and that makes your fits. Plasma is not free or easy flowing and pressing nerves. I did not find one of the big specialists but I have it and I could send it but only in copies that they are not lost.

Miron you don’t have ground to go against anyone of these people here or there. Dear God gives you and us all with this big illness misery or nature. As well, I am sending you a few photos which you snapped up from Werrington Park. Somebody’s funeral. I have a lot of documents and your letters to me to grandma, as well from solicitor when we pulled you from the jail unfortunately. I paid to the Greek all your rent for nothing.

Tom was young but we paid the air plane to help you. You remember I brought a chocolate and warder was rude and I cannot give it to you. They in the jail hit you and Mr Harris helped you a lot, and you dobbed him to the police that he was in jail or paid a fine. Well he should not do those things, but how many times he lent you money and we repaid back with interest.

See sorry to say about the dog and fire. That was not normal, but that is all past and better is say sorry to God and forget it. I don’t know what is wrong with Mr Andonov you remember how many times I sent money to him and late mom Kathy, that he gives you salami and food. He was once with the new wife with us, but afterwards he never wrote. Do you have any communication with Mr Andonov? He was a good man and I wish to thank him again for all the help he gave you.

Well how are you, do you take any tablets for epilepsy or not? I am not very well, I have pains all over. Regarding additional floor it is good but it is a lot of money necessary to spend. Maybe the best way is until you have money from the book. We will see. Loan is a bad thing to do. If money comes, it is easy but we have to wait. You were right to write that you will wait for this 120 dollars after the money for the book comes.

But I don’t know why you need the old files. With epilepsy it does not mean that someone is silly, some people with the same illness are a genius. Does Jacky write to you? She is a clever girl. I wrote to her to Cebu but I don’t know has she received the letter. Actually Maria was with the family in Vanuatu and a lot of Filipinos are working with the shipping company on the ship.

This company is P & O. I wrote to her that maybe she could enroll herself. I wish again to Alyn VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY-I sent in advance the birthday card with twenty dollars. Sorry that Mr Ceriaco did not receive his mail. Miron you forgot to write to me about address and phones and fax of Mrs Doris Almeda. Try to give a short phone call not long just you say they have to pick up my mail. Lot of love dad.

Dear dad,

I received your letter with five photos and some documents last Tuesday, Don’t you remember Buxton? Tom and Maria were still kids, mother took the photo of me, you, grandma and the kids. It was taken with your camera in 1969 before you put me in Rydalmere. House of Mrs Walker with all the kids, down the hill was the gulley where they found coal years after.

Other black and white photo was taken at Hoxton Park, the farm of Mr Gilih, where I went to pull stakes from the tomato patch and we went on invitation for some kind of a fiesta gathering, it was on the day when I started up the tractor but I didn’t know how to drive it. Franjo Gilih told you not to punish me because I didn’t do anything wrong, I was only growing up and wanting to learn.

It was on the same day when that woman with a Volks wagon beetle car ran under the back of a parked truck and her baby was killed. You parked and I got out and tried to help her by holding the seat apart because her left leg was jammed between the seats and under the left one. We still had the black and white Standard Eight. The little picture was taken years later with a Kodak Instamataic 126 camera of mine when I came for a visit from Brisbane to Stanmore.

You may remember that Italian boy who pushed Tom into the public swimming pool and broke his leg because the pool was empty, being cleaned out. Tom had crutches and a broken leg in plaster, It may have been taken at Buxton because you still had that house and the Volkswagon Beetle. The shed there looks like the tin store shed at Buxton where we kept the lawn mower and tools for gardening and cutting down trees.

The two photos of the funeral were taken with your camera, I took them at Rookwood when we buried grandma, that was grandma’s funeral in August 1986. It was the day when Mr Lee was riding home with some people and wound up in an accident. He went to court against the driver who ran them off the road and claimed I don’t know how many thousands of dollars compensation.

We had lot of people eating and drinking in the shop at Stanmore, in the Arena where we set up tables in the row and I was serving the food and drinks to all the visitors while telling Tom, Jeff, his brothers Ivan and Tom how I’m going to go to the Philippines to get married and live for good, that I’m going to have land and houses and shops and girls around the place. They all went on with me but none of them believed anything I said and you said that I would never get to the Philippines because you will not let me go.

I was living in Ballina at the time and seriously planning to get married in the Philippines. That boy who broke Tom’s leg stole the purse with grandma’s money for the baker and I was blamed for it but I caught the kid with grandma’s purse and the money and I grabbed him by the throat and dragged him inside for stealing and took grandma’s purse from him.

To answer your questions in the letter as I said on the telephone, I don’t care about reporting anybody or getting anybody fined, I want to read my medical files that are held in the archives at Penrith to see what they used for treating me, what drugs and my own history because I don’t know half the things about myself and what was done to me. There are lot of blank spots that I need to fill in. Lot of those people may be dead by now, so how would anybody report or sue dead people?

You can send me all the documents you have no problem and any photos that may help as well. My letters to grandma you can destroy, shred them if you want to, they are no use anyway. Harris was never in jail, he was given that fine after the detectives found pornographic movies that he was selling for Samy from Petersham in Sydney.

That was after they sent you that rude photo that Sami made up with my head on the body of an old guy, probably Harris himself because Harris had heaps of those pornographic photos taken with him playing around with boys and boys naked playing with themselves, he was an old poof and lot of those boys came back and stole his money because they had ideas that he should pay them for letting him jerk or suck them off all the time.

He and Sami planned to swindle or blackmail you for lot of money. That happened after Harris came out of hospital and busted his door in after Miss Jack snatched his front door key from his dresser in the hospital. I remember very well how he walked home from the hospital leaving his car in the hospital parking lot because he didn’t have his keys with him.

He got me few days before to go and ask the woman in the basement flat to let me in up the back way because he wanted his watch, he didn’t have his keys because Miss Jack had taken them and all his money that he had in his locker near his bed in the hospital ward. He then made up a story to Samway when Sam visited a few days later because Miss Jack told him that I stole his money in the hospital.

He told me that the nurses were stealing his money but Miss Jack told him that I did it to get the blame off herself. He then made up the story that I broke his door in so his landlord wouldn’t force him to pay the damages. You advised me to call the police on him if I can positively say that I’m not guilty. I’m not a thief, I don’t go breaking into old people’s homes to rob them. Miss Jack stole thousands upon thousands of dollars from his bank account and had the audacity to blame it on me.

He used to get her to go to his bank and draw money for him after he signed a blank withdrawal slip. If he wanted two hundred dollars, she drew four if he wanted five, she drew a thousand. I caught her out and drew his notice to it. How did she do it? I said, she gets him to sign the blank withdrawal slip, then she fills it in where he can’t see her and robs him of his money. How many times she told me that she was doing it for years and years and was never caught until I heard her once telling him lies about me stealing his money.

I caught her on top of the driveway and took the ignition key from her car, hopped in and told her she’s not going anywhere until she comes down and tells him the truth. She was advising him to get me locked up in a mental asylum. She tried to deny it in front of him but he confirmed it and I said, she is stealing all your money by drawing extra after he signs the slip. I don’t have any keys to his flat but she does and she owned up to me herself that she took all his money from the bedside cabinet in the hospital ward and not the nurses.

Harris said, May, what a shame about you and you blamed Miron for it. She then owned up to him that all the stolen money was first used to restump and reroof her house but afterwards, she invested it all in roll overs because he wouldn’t need it anyway, that is the truth. That Paul Girdler who robbed him, stole his money because he allowed Harris to jerk him off and I got the blame but I saw Girdler once with some poof before they stole his wallat.

I saw Harrises wallet and all his prescriptions and ID strewn in the gutter all along the footpath and brought them to him without the two hundred dollars, next time Girdler visited, Harris pushed him in the corner and asked why did he blame me over the stealing when he and the other boy robbed him and that I saw them doing it. The bugger owned up that he and the other boy split up the money half - half and used it on prostitutes in a brothel or massage parlor.

At another time, I caught Girdler breaking into the flat when Harris was out and I went in after him, he got in with a key that Harris left carelessly in the lock of the door and was raiding the flat for money and I bashed him and called the police and held him until the police came under Citizens arrest. Almost two years later Girdler was pleading not guilty about it but Harris notified me that I was wanted as a witness in court against Girdler.

I was in Melbourne after grandma’s funeral. Sergeant Russell from Woolloongabba was in charge of the case and they convicted him after he changed his plea to guilty when he saw me in the court waiting area. My statement to the police that was typed was read in court but they allowed him to get off on a fifty dollar fine and Harris didn’t get his hundred dollars back either that Girdler stole that day before I caught him.

How many more years it took me to get my travel and witness expenses from the Justice department back for that case after the subpoena went astray in the mail strike that year. That was all under Bjelke Petersen and I managed to get the money paid to me after taking the Justice Department to the Small Debts Courts and having the Bailiff collect it for me from the Undersecretary Atkinson of the Justice Department, he was another corrupt party.

Atkinson was later sacked by the Firzgeral Enquiry for corruption, as was Bjelke Petersen, also police commissioner Terry Lewis, Police Minister Russ Hinze who died from cancer, then there was Tony Murphy, a corrupt cop operating brothels around Brisbane. That news report I sent you from the newspaper about Harris getting fined was given to the news people by the courts not me. I had nothing to do with that.

I didn’t know about it until the parents of my landlady at fifteen Browning Street, West End drew my notice to it in the Sunday newspaper how Detectives Luis and Dicarlo came in with my statement about the films, Harris was setting up the projector with a porno movie, Sami had a car he stole from some guy in Newcastle, when Sami came from the corner store, the detectives pretended to be customers for the porno films and they watched a film.

Both of them confessed to selling the movies and they were both arrested but Sami ran for it while the cops searched the flat and they caught him up near the Stones Corner hotel and threw him in jail, he and Harris were charged conjointly for importing and selling illegal movies across the state border. Harris had no resentment against me for it and he told me that he knew it was illegal and he shouldn’t have been doing it.

Sami spent time in jail and was ordered to go back to Sydney and not come back. They fined him for having a stolen vehicle because the owner of the car in Newcastle had reported it to the Newcastle police as being stolen in the night by Sami after Sami left his little Renault parked in the person’s driveway. I was unfairly blamed and I had to clear my name and show that I didn’t do anything of the kind or rob anybody but Harris was robbed by his poofters and the types he played about with all his life.

What kind of behavior is that for an ordained priest? I always repaid Harris back the money that he lent me. You repaid Ljubo Andonov yes when he had the delicatessen for the sausages of pepetoni that he gave me. Mr Andonov doesn not live in Meadowbank anymore, you sent me that address to Tagbilaran and he must have divorced his second wife because when I wrote to him asking him to get all my gear from Shirley that time, my letter came back return to sender, not at this address anymore, gone away.

I still have the copy of the letter that I wrote to him with the list of things to take from Shirley. I checked through two telephone books only yesterday for Christian Travel or Doris Almeda but there are no listings at all for them anymore. This letter is too long but things had to be said. We held the birthday party for the little kid and he was happy with a big chocolate birthday cake and lemonade and coke. He is growing up very fast. See you now from Miron. 16/2/2008.

Dear Miron, Alyn Gemelyn and Jacky, father, 21/1/2008.

I have recently received your letter informing me about money you have received seventy dollars. Mrs Rauzan has received the short letter also. Thank you that you wrote to her. Yes if someone makes good, we have to thank them. Thank you and to Alyn and little or young one and to Jacky for sending to us all the cards. It was nice and family returning the best wishes.

In the mean time, perhaps you have received my letters. I found the letter from Jacky and she is a beautiful young lady. Very nice picture and pity that she was not with you when my letter and money arrived. Regarding her letter, it is sensible and I wrote back to her. Yes when we have money than it is good to use it, but it is not good to say in advance for many reasons as I wrote before. Please do not be cross with me and with us. I wrote the truth, illness is bad and hard.

It is good that you do not have fits. Do you take medication? You should and result about your book we will see how it will come out. I was happy to read about two kilos of barbecued meat and I understand about diabetes. How is Mrs Luisa and have they received the small remittance for Christmas? It is good rate thirty six pesos for one dollar. Yes post office is lazy, it was always in your country. Sorry that you were sick after the meat and cakes.

Maria and her family are back for a week and thanks you for sending the card for Stephany, I gave the mail to Maria. Regarding rain here is as well very chanceful. Tom is painting my room and the big corridor. He has holidays and Gina also. Regarding the headache, I am sending you copies of two natural prescriptions. Sunflower oil I believe you have over there. It is in Croatian. While I am writing this letter I have oil in my mouth, It helps.

I recently started to use the oil. Other one is with garlic and lemons, it opens the vanes of the heart and in the brain where you have the inborn blockage. Try that as well as I shall do, it cannot harm. I hope that you did not forget Croatian. Cesnjak is garlic – white onion. Read and buy it, it may help for the headache. Everything is written in the copies. Regarding your dream, it is only a dream and you should not be upset about anything.

We see many things in the dream but it is not real. Have you changed your phone number? I tried many times to contact you, but post office saying that number 0011/63/38/2356921 has been disconnected or not available. Recently, I am shredding my old files and I found a picture and a letter of Lily Dalaten letters etc. Miron please leave Mrs Almeda in peace, do not write against or for them as I wrote to you earlier.

Maybe they are not in business now. I cannot get them on the telephone in Pasig City. I sent them a card, but they perhaps have the card in the post office in Golden Tower Pasig City. Please find in telephone book or under Almeda or Christian Travel Centre their right address and in the first letter, give it to me as well the telephone and fax number.

Go ahead with prescription and we are all sending regards to you and all your family. Please don’t fight with Alyn as jacky wrote. It is hard but you need each other. Love from dad and family. PS, There in the file are also the letters from you and the lawyer when you was in jail etc.

Dear dad,

we received two of your letters in two days. First came Alyn’s birthday card last Monday, four February with twenty dollars, then on Tuesday your letter dated 21/1/2008 came with five dollars for Gemelyn. The Christmas card you sent to Ceriaco came at the end of January, I think February one to Ubay with ten dollars not twenty as you claimed to have sent. We will not be holding Alyn’s birthday party tomorrow because she’s gone to Ubay harvesting the rice, the old man is here and is unbearable but he has become very frail.

He is trying to sell a big area of land he owns for three million pesos and Alyn’s got to run around doing his business all the time. I’m sick of him because he doesn’t pay nothing for his keep to us, only bludging on us all the time. The dog, Black Beans has given birth to two pups in the night, a white and a brown but the brown pup was still born so I swept it on the dust pan this morning and chucked it out in the swamp near the main road.

This is the first time I received thirty one thousand pesos in my pension since last October when the dollar price suddenly dropped. This is the first time since I’ve lived in this country I found canned chestnuts on supermarket shelves. Canned in water and imported from China. They already have our cherries bottled in syrup. We will be holding Mak Mak’s birthday on the Valentine’s Day February fourteen. I paid for a huge chocolate iced birthday cake to be collected on that day.

Forgive me for not answering all your questions last time, there was no time for it. I was writing the letter in the morning while Alyn was preparing to go to the city, she wanted to post the letter, so I had to hurry up and finish it for...