By Greg
SPOILER ALERT: There WILL be more…
This month marks two years since I started the TrennaMahney.com website.
I have loved doing it. It has reminded me of so many events, incidents, feelings, from my time with Trenna. The stories Trenna and I have told and the records I have published have allowed me to relive so many experiences.
And it has helped me to reflect on just how lucky we were to find each other and to spend … Read the rest ... “Two Years of Writing About Life, Love and Loss”
Regular readers: I’m sorry this one has taken so long to appear. The website was broken and I was having trouble fixing it. I’m not sure why it is working now, but, on with the story…
It was maybe 8pm by the time we got word that Andrew Hodge was on his way. The team of doctors and nurses that were now constantly surrounding Trenna started moving her bed to the lifts to take her to … Read the rest ... “Trenna’s Heart Valve Replacement – Part 2”
By Greg
I thought some readers of this site may find this story interesting. In it I tell you about Trenna’s surgery to have her aortic heart valve and ascending aorta replaced. I intended it to be a stand alone story, but it turns out the memories of those times are still pretty clear in my mind, and a lot happened, so, here is Part 1 of what has turned out to be a two part story of medical success … Read the rest ... “Trenna’s Heart Valve Replacement – Part 1”
Trenna and I liked to record information about our holidays. Below is the travel diary Trenna kept on her iPad of a trip to the North Island of New Zealand from 11 November 2016 to 22 November 2016. The only time we went there, and our last overseas trip together.
It was a trip that turned out like nothing we were expecting, due to an untimely and devastating earthquake. I have written a brief account of … Read the rest ... “New Zealand North Island – Tren’s Travel Diary”
By Greg
Being a carer can be like being on a roller coaster, it can be fun, and thrilling, and downright scary. Sometimes it’s all those things at once. And once you are on it it can be very hard to get off. But then again, sometimes you don’t want to get off, you just want it to go on and on as long as possible.
In this Post I will try to pass on some of my experience gained … Read the rest ... “Carer things that worked for Greg – the good, the bad and the ugly”
Special Note: I had this Post finished and ready to publish on 21 December 2023. And then the tragic news of a mass shooting in Prague came through. I have therefore held back the story for a couple of weeks out of respect for the people who lost their life.
23 May – 4 June 2012
Wed, 30 May 2012 17:35:16 +0200
Hi Nance and Barb,
Hope all goes well with u both.
We have been in Prague … Read the rest ... “We’ll Always Have Prague – and the China Lady on the Wall”
Mainly by Trenna
As I am writing this it is my birthday. 66 today. 66!
Back in 1998 Trenna, as usual gave me a birthday card, and in it was a poem she had written for the occasion. I really appreciated the effort she put into it.
Just for some context, we both turned 41 in that year, Trenna a few months before me. We would have been married 9 years by then, and we were living in … Read the rest ... “An “OWED””
Photos played a very big part in Trenna’s life, especially in later years as her mobility decreased. She spent hundreds of hours sorting, scanning, dating and captioning photos stretching back to her very earliest days.
I therefore take quite a bit of time and care in choosing the photos I use on the site.
Below is a gallery of all the photos I have used so far. I have also created a page that displays all those photos. You should … Read the rest ... “All Photos Published on the TrennaMahney.com Website”
Scene Setting by Greg, Then an Extract From Trenna’s Gardening Diary
This post is just a bit of whimsy
This post is just a bit of whimsy I have decided to do on the spur of the moment. Today (16th December 2023) is one week before the third anniversary of Trenna passing away. And of course Christmas is approaching and a few days after that will be my birthday.
It is a time of mixed emotions. Don’t get me … Read the rest ... “24 Years Ago in our Garden”
by Greg
The holiday season is upon us, so I thought I’d do an entertaining friends post.
Trenna absolutely loved mixing with people, and she loved good food. And lunch time was the ideal socialising time for her.
First thing in the morning she was often stiff and/or sore from the night, and her morning drugs had not had time to take effect. In the evening she was often exhausted from the activities of the day. Lunch time though, … Read the rest ... “How to Stage a Trenna Lunch – with recipes”
At the end of each Post on this web site there is an opportunity to make a comment. I love it when people do and the comments stay attached to that particular post.
That usually works well, but if you have read a Post you probably won’t come back to it so you will miss any comments that are made after that time.
Often commenters/commentators have been able to add extra information or correct something I … Read the rest ... “Everyone’s Got an Opinion”
Intro by Greg, the rest by Tren
Below are Trenna’s notes of a 4 day break we had in 2015. We had booked a house just outside the small but delightful town of Bridgetown, in the South West corner of Western Australia. It is about a 3 hour drive from our place. Oh, and Bridgetown can be cold!
I’ll tell you up front that the story is not a remarkable one. It reminds me of a Japanese movie or … Read the rest ... “A Few Days in Bridgetown – 2015”
by Greg
Regular readers will know that I have recently returned from a holiday. I went to the UK, with a side trip to Budapest. The whole trip was great.
Whilst away I checked and approved comments submitted to the website, but didn’t write any new posts. That worked fine, my spirits were high and I was busy every day. I also kept a bit of a journal … Read the rest ... “Kangaroos Having Fun”
I am very conscious that I haven’t added a post to this website for a couple of weeks. This is very unusual. Since I created the website 19 months ago I’ve contributed every week, and on average about two posts per week.
As I have written previously (for example, HERE), the TrennaMahney.com website serves many purposes. One of those is to help me in the grieving process.
By Greg
This story took me longer to write than perhaps any other, but it was a tale I wanted to tell.
Trenna’s birthday has recently passed so obviously I started thinking about her. One thing that came to mind was the time she spent with our neighbour Terry, near the end of Terry’s life.
Terry, her husband Neil, and their young son Jason moved into the house on the corner, two doors up from us … Read the rest ... “The Craft Group and Caring for Terry”
Intro and extra clarifications by Greg, the rest by Tren
As I’ve said previously … In Trenna’s iPad she has written summaries of each year. As you will see from what she has written she has gleaned the information retrospectively from a wide range of sources.
As I reproduce them on this site I’ll take the opportunity to clarify and expand on some of the stories. Trenna wrote these summaries (and there … Read the rest ... “1991”
Letter by Tren, Intro and Background by Greg
If you read The Kitchen Tapes series on this website you will find out a lot about Trenna, including that she experienced quite a lot of bullying at high school, primarily because she looked different to other people. Her thick, coke-bottle glasses didn’t help at all.
Then in 1974, when Trenna was 17 years of age, Optometrist Nick Humphry prescribed some rigid (hard) contact lenses and they transformed her … Read the rest ... “Thank You & Au Revoir Nick”
By Greg
You may have noticed that we have just passed the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop.
It wasn’t an anniversary that was on my radar, in fact, neither Trenna or I were big fans of hip-hop. We didn’t dislike it, it was just that there was a lot of other music around. That is until hot one afternoon in December 2013.
Each year Perth has an international festival. And each year I … Read the rest ... “Trenna & Public Enemy – 50 years of hip-hop”
The name on the file was “Bronchitis” but it was so much more than that.
Trenna died nearly three years ago and, maybe as a coping mechanism, I have been enjoying telling people of her achievements and of events in her life. She did a lot.
But occasionally I remember something, or I see something that reminds me of what she went through, and how at times it was so, so hard for her.
I recently saw a file on … Read the rest ... “Chronic Illness – The Straws Accumulate”
Intro and extra clarifications by Greg, the rest by Tren
As I’ve said previously … In Trenna’s iPad she has written summaries of each year. As you will see from what she has written she has gleaned the information retrospectively from a wide range of sources.
As I reproduce them on this site I’ll take the opportunity to clarify and expand on some of the stories. Trenna wrote these summaries (and there … Read the rest ... “1990”