From living in palliative care to transforming McLean Care with music, Jo Peel tells Michael O’Sullivan’s story, just in time for Senior’s Week.
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Michael arrived at McLean Care Village on April 7, 2017, transferred from Armidale District Hospital by ambulance. He had come to spend the final days of his life in palliative care after suffering from a long illness.
What was to happen over the next twelve months has indeed been a miracle.
Music has played a major role in Michael’s life. As an original member of Inverell’s bush band, Bandy Bill and Co, he recorded a number of songs including Modern Day Swaggie and Spinnin’ Yarns. Michael’s song Happy Birthday Australia found its way onto Macca’s Australia All Over Volume II, which collaboratively sold 89,000 copies.
This album was the curtain raiser for the iconic We Are Australian. The Best is Yet to Come was Michael’s first individual release. He has also written, recorded and performed tracks on eight artist compilation albums, six with ABC Radio’s Australia All Over program. His songs include Macca on a Sunday Morning, Rain on a Tin Roof and Blue Outback Skies.
This man of huge talent was now in a bed, slowly dying. But there was a strength of determination rooted in the heart of Michael, and a strong faith in God. Through the wonderful care provided by the nurses, aides, all the staff in McLean’s Chisholm section, and the support of friends hell bent on helping him regain his health, Michael slowly began to recover. Michael believes that he owes his life to these people.
His journey has been hard. Michael needed to regain his health, learn how to communicate, to walk, and to again use his hands to hold and play his precious guitar.
It is twelve months since Michael arrived at McLean Care and how different life is. He has now moved to independent living in Beresford Coward. Never to be described as a selfish person, Michael, with his new-found freedom, set about making sure he knew every individual in the facility and became aware of their needs and concerns.
Horticulture is another of Michael’s passions. He undertook the task of renewing many of the resident’s gardens and propagating plants, sometimes with the help of other residents who found that working in the garden gave them a new lease of life.
Not ever asking for payment for the many plants he has purchased, and with the assistance of BEST Nursery, Michael was simply happy to bring joy to the faces of the residents through the beauty of flowers.
Hid desire to make others feel valued and important has also become evident in his passion for cooking. Using McLean’s barbecue and wonderful new pergola, Michael has created some amazing food and hearty meals for his friends, and given some the confidence to begin socialising.
Music remains Michael’s great passion in life. Teaming up with a brilliant Irish guitarist whose partner is in high dependency, and an ex-school teacher, music can be heard on a daily basis in a courtyard under what Michael has dubbed the ‘Tree of Knowledge’.
Many residents come and join in the sing-a-long under the tree. The trio, known as the Bandies, an offshoot of Bandy Bill, also perform in various sections of McLean and the general agreement among the residents is that they can’t get enough of the music.
It has been a number of years since Michael last hosted his own radio program. Today Michael can again be heard on the radio, bringing his knowledge and love of music to the Inverell public when he joins Chris on STA FM on Thursday mornings.
Michael himself would agree he is no angel, and he suffers almost continual pain. Even getting dressed can be an issue, so he is sometimes seen strolling around McLean barefoot.
He is not what you might call ‘obsessively tidy’, or shy and retiring, but who could blame such exuberance from someone, who, as he himself would say, ‘Like Lazarus, I have been brought back to life’.
