Pat sat in a waiting area on the fourth floor of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It felt like he’d been there forever. He looked at his watch. It was three o’clock. He’d been there since eleven forty-five waiting for news.
‘Mr Travers?’
Pat looked up at a woman, too young to be a doctor in his estimation, who was wearing a name badge that clearly indicated she was indeed a doctor. ‘Yes.’
‘We’ve lost your father, I’m afraid. He had a series of coronary episodes after admission, following the one he had in the car. I’m sorry.’
Pat wondered what she really felt. He’d delivered that sort of bad news to too many people himself without feeling much emotion. He didn’t feel much now, since he hadn’t expected his father to make it.
The paramedic, who’d extracted his unconscious father from his wr
