Duncan:"We never knew how long Rob would live. We’d talk about death,and he must have been scared,but he never let on."Credit:Janie Barrett
DUNCAN: I met Rob in school in 1982,when we started year 7. We got the bus together from Longueville[on Sydney’s north shore]. We all knew he was sick. Occasionally we’d be walking up the hill to school and he’d stop to cough his lungs up,then he’d be straight back into the conversation.
I wasn’t very cool at school,but Rob made an effort to draw me into the social groups. He’d say,“Hey Dunc,come with us,” and get me invited to parties.
He was also very funny. After year 12,a bunch of us went to Avoca Beach[on the NSW Central Coast] for Schoolies week. We were at the shark tower,it was midday,and Rob had had a few beers. He wandered off … and suddenly there was a report of a naked man on the beach. Then someone yelled out,“The cops!” So we grabbed Rob,shoved a pair of shorts back on him,sat him down and told him to shut up. The cops came up to us and said,“Have you seen the naked guy?” We were like,“Nup.”
He loves cars and motorbikes. His dad owned this old Fiat:the FartBubble,we called it. Rob and I used to service it. One day we decided to put a sunroof in it,so we got my dad’s jigsaw,marked out the roof of the car,cut it open and placed this piece of perspex on it. When his old man saw what we’d done,he went ballistic.
We never knew how long he’d live. As he got into his 20s,some friends he’d made through the cystic fibrosis community started to die. We’d talk about death,and internally he must have been scared,but he never let on. As far as he was concerned,it wasn’t going to affect his life. He’d have the occasional ciggie. Sometimes when he was in hospital,a few of us would pick him up,take him to the nearest pub for a few beers,then drop him back.
Rob had his first lung transplant in 2004. He’d been on the list for a while. On the day I found out his turn had come up,I was looking at nappies in an aisle of the supermarket in Discovery Bay in Hong Kong,where I was living and working at the time. One of our mates called to tell me Rob was going into surgery. I just burst into tears. I thought,“He’s got another lease on life!”
Rob and his wife,Jo,had their daughter,Kiana,that same year. There was a risk he would pass on the CF gene,but it turned out that Kiana’s okay. I’m her godfather.