{"id":5584,"date":"2014-12-28T22:23:15","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T22:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?page_id=5584"},"modified":"2014-12-28T22:23:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T22:23:15","slug":"the-people-who-inspired-flight-to-coorah-creek","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/977-2\/flight-to-coorah-creek\/the-people-who-inspired-flight-to-coorah-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"The People Who Inspired Flight to Coorah Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than any other of my books, Flight to Coorah Creek is directly inspired by people I have met.<\/p>\n

Many, many years ago \u2013 while working as a journalist in Queensland, I met a nursing nun who worked in a specialist children\u2019s hospital unit. Every day she faces the heart-breaking sight of young children seriously ill \u2013 or dying. Despite this she remained serene and calm. She never lost her faith in her God \u2013 or in people.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember her name. Or her face; I have a picture in my mind of a small, elderly woman, but after so many years, I don\u2019t know how real that image is.<\/p>\n

I always wanted to write a character with that woman\u2019s strength and serenity, I just needed a story to put her in.<\/p>\n

\"Mater<\/a>
Mater Hospital, Brisbane, QLD\u2013 the hospital where I met the nun who inspired Sister Luke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years later a met a young woman who flew a private jet for a rich and powerful businessman. They were also a couple and she lived in a flat he owned in central Sydney. She was quite beautiful. I never met him. Although we didn\u2019t become friends, I often wondered what would happen to her if her relationship with her boss\/lover soured. She would have nothing left \u2013 no home, no job, no lover.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if that ever happened \u2013 and I certainly do not want to suggest that man was in way linked to drug trafficking\u2026 That all slowly emerged from the back of my mind.<\/p>\n

The final part of the puzzle was again many years later. While on holiday in Central Australia, I was taken ill \u2013 and I was flown to Mt Isa hospital by the Royal Flying Doctor Service \u2013 an amazing free air ambulance service that daily saves lives in the outback, where the nearest doctor may be hundreds of miles away.<\/p>\n

\"Ayers<\/a>
Ayers Rock Airport, NT \u2013 the airport from which I was medivaced<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The care I was given on that flight was wonderful.<\/p>\n

Somehow, years later, these very different people seemed to come together in mind. And suddenly I had a story that I thought \u2013 that I hope \u2013 is worthy of each of them.<\/p>\n