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Donald Oswald Solum 1922–2009
Aug. 5th, 2009 07:56 amDonald Solum passed in his sleep early this morning, of Cancer, at John Falkner Hospital in Brunswick.
After he demobbed as an Aircraft Mechanic in WWII, he moved to Watsonia with his bride, Mavis. He built their house, as much as he could with his own hands, the house their three children grew up in, the house they lived in until his death, the house his widow still lives in.
For many years Greensborough and Watsonia were farmland, and that house was on a chicken farm. As the years progressed the suburbs approached, and the farms were subdivided. Donald worked as an electrical fitter until his retirement, while being a devoted father, and eventually, grandfather. He loved doing things with his hands, spending hours in his gardens, in his garage with the workshop, and later teaching himself to paint. When old age started restricting how much he could do in the garden, he started concentrating on orchids, joining the local orchid club and winning prizes.
He had been fighting prostate cancer for years, but a couple of weeks ago we found that it had spread to four tumours in his brain. As it progressed he had good days and bad, but he was lucid when I and my family visited, and Nanna tells me that he remembered the visits, and was happy. In his final days, the pain was increasing, and so was the morphine dose, which even so was only dulling the pain. His pain ended very early this morning, and he is now at rest.
He dearly loved, and was intensely proud of his three children, his eight grandchildren, and his four great-grandchildren. And we were proud of him.
He was kind, and gentle. He was fierce in defence. He was a patient teacher. He was a mensch. He was my Poppa.
Donald Oswald Solum. 22 February 1922 — 5 August 2009
After he demobbed as an Aircraft Mechanic in WWII, he moved to Watsonia with his bride, Mavis. He built their house, as much as he could with his own hands, the house their three children grew up in, the house they lived in until his death, the house his widow still lives in.
For many years Greensborough and Watsonia were farmland, and that house was on a chicken farm. As the years progressed the suburbs approached, and the farms were subdivided. Donald worked as an electrical fitter until his retirement, while being a devoted father, and eventually, grandfather. He loved doing things with his hands, spending hours in his gardens, in his garage with the workshop, and later teaching himself to paint. When old age started restricting how much he could do in the garden, he started concentrating on orchids, joining the local orchid club and winning prizes.
He had been fighting prostate cancer for years, but a couple of weeks ago we found that it had spread to four tumours in his brain. As it progressed he had good days and bad, but he was lucid when I and my family visited, and Nanna tells me that he remembered the visits, and was happy. In his final days, the pain was increasing, and so was the morphine dose, which even so was only dulling the pain. His pain ended very early this morning, and he is now at rest.
He dearly loved, and was intensely proud of his three children, his eight grandchildren, and his four great-grandchildren. And we were proud of him.
He was kind, and gentle. He was fierce in defence. He was a patient teacher. He was a mensch. He was my Poppa.
Donald Oswald Solum. 22 February 1922 — 5 August 2009