Mama / Baba Viki’s Cancer Journey

Beautiful Memorial Service for Mama today by Northern Adelaide Palliative Service 💜🕊️

Every step I take carries the fire of the woman who raised me.

Even when broken, she kept walking.

From her strength, I was born.

From her love, I learned courage.

From her spirit, I carry resilience.

Mama, your magic lives in me, and I will honour you for all my days.

5 months
21 weeks
4 days
14 hours
19 minutes

Without you with me in your physical form… but i feel you every second, of every day.

Thank you, Mama 🙏🥰🫶🏼

Pomen.
40 days without mama 💔

Thank you so much to everyone for attending mamas funeral service and baba dinner last Thursday 🙏

Your love and kind words were beyond appreciated 💜

Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen 🫶🏼

It was a big day and Aleks and I hope it was everything mama would have wanted 💐

As mentioned in the memorial card handouts, Aleks is working on an App for your phone, called “Babas Life”. It’s not quite ready, but when it is, I will post the details of it in here.

It will have photos, voice recordings, a timeline of Mamas life and more. A place we can all go to always remember the beautiful and hilarious person our Mama was 🥹

Velika Metodija Petrovska

04.07.1949 - 20.03.2025

May her soul, rest at last 🙏

Here is the livestream link for the funeral service 2pm Thursday 3rd April:

Notices & Streams - Taylor and Forgie Funeral Directors Funeral Notices & Live StreamsPlease note that not all services will be listed here due to family wishes.Please use the search bar below.Please call (08) 8522 1734 for more information.

Mama / Baba Viki is finally resting & at peace 🙏

🕊️

Velika Metodija Petrovska

🕊️

04.07.1949 - 20.03.2025

🕊️

12:10pm today, her beautiful heart beat its last beat.

🕊️

75 years of age.

🕊️

Mama was so ready for this day to arrive. She hadn’t properly eaten or drank for almost 6 days & grew weaker every day. The growth and discomfort was just too much for her despite how many meds she was on to alleviate it.

Last night I asked her to describe what it felt like inside of her. She paused and rubbed her chest & said it feels like it’s a revolution. I was confused & thought maybe she meant “revelation”… (Oxford meaning: “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence.”… but then after I asked her what she meant, she said “it feels like all my organs are at war, but it will be over soon and I will win”. I thought that statement was revolutionary in itself. Oxford definition of revolution:

“a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system.”

Mama overthrew the cancer and took her power back and owned a new system of dying… & she went - her way! It took SOOO much guts & that is the core of who our mama was. Gutsy. Despite all the trials & tribulations she experienced in her life (and there were plenty), she held her head high & was so authentically & powerfully herself. She did things her way!

I’m glad her mind was there, right until the end. We shared so many silent & knowing stares these past few days and she just nodded at me as if to say, “I’m ready” & I knew it in my heart that it was true.

The weather was absolutely beautiful yesterday and the day before and we brought her bed outside and she napped in the sunshine and there were so many birds around her and the water feature trickling in the background… I told her this morning that she picked a great day because todays weather was s**t & we wouldn’t have been able to to out & enjoy it today & she laughed & said “it’s a good day then”.

Mama wanted the chaplain & the VAD nurse to be in the room as well as Aleks, Scott, Joey & myself… & of course, they both arrived early and patiently waited & were just ready to be that support for our beautiful mama and for the rest of us! These 2 angels on this earth helped mama in her most desperate times… spiritually & emotionally. When she was abandoned by her priest and her church, these two amazing women held mamas hand and her heart and reassured her that she was doing what was right for her & that can never be wrong.

Individually they prayed & chatted & laughed & cried together & they eased mamas heart and soul 💜

They were both brought into our lives at the exact right time & for more than just this & I have full faith that it wasn’t a coincidence. Thank you both endlessly x

Mama wanted to go at 11:11, so that’s when the journey began. All 6 of us walked in the room at almost EXACTLY 11:11am this morning & the next hour was nothing short of magical.

There was lavendar essential oils bubbling in the diffuser, relaxation music playing, mama was holding all her hearts from the chaplain, her cross & her favourite flowers (carnations). There was a picture of her & her best friend, her sister… my aunty Fran, whom we lost in July last year. We had another BEAUTIFUL bunch of her favourite colour flowers - purple, on the bench beside her. The light was dim & we were all around her.

Mama was so relaxed & knew when the time was right. She told me & slowly it all happened. There was zero hesitation… once it was ready, she took one more look around at the love in the room & drank her revolution ammunition & we held her & loved her… until her last breath ✊🏽

What a bloody woman! I am just in awe of her… I always have been and I always will be.

The world looks different now. The trees look different. The sky looks different. People look different… I am forever changed… for the better.

I am the luckiest human alive to have had her as my mama… & I will forever carry on her legacy of gardening, cooking & art… & most of all, her warmth & loving kindness to everyone in her path 🙏💜

VAD arrived today.

Mama has the mini box key and I have the cabinet key. We had rhe full education session on what to do and how to do it beforere during and after.

Mama has said she wants to take it tomorrow.

We don’t know what time, or if she even will.

If she does… then this is my last night with my mama. My last night to be breathing the same air as her… my last night to hear her cute snore & mumble nonsense in her sleep.

My last night with her in thee physical realm with me…

What a crazy, crazy time.

The chaplain came today and said a prayer with mama and offered to do all the spiritual things that her priest abandoned her from.

We sat outside in the perfect weather for hours taking about alllll of her final wishes and reminiscing. We video called her grandkids that couldn’t be there.

We cried.

Tomorrow is a new & very scary day.

Goodnight x

We are getting very close to the end now.

It doesn’t feel real.

Mama got her second ascitic tap put in 2 days ago (drain into her abdomen to drain the excess fluid her body has created due to the cancer).

The first tap had her feeling pretty great (well
as great as she can being riddled with cancer).

This tap, not so much.

They got 3.5litres out but mama still feels pretty terrible & nauseous. So we are at the point of mama wanting to order the VAD medication and may be taking it in the next week or so.

I’m pretty overwhelmed by it all. We all are.

I ask that (due to the overwhelm) you please keep contact to a minimum. We have quite a few visitors planned over the weekend already and I know that alone is going to exhaust mama.

I will try to update before it happens, but I may not be able to.

Thank you for the past 20months of support. It’s been a real ride 🫶🏼

Love to you all x

A lot can happen in 2 weeks!

We said goodbye to Jadie Taters 🫶🏼

We welcomed our newest family member - Vejdie (p**n: vay-dee). Sweetest girl in all the lands… rescued from AWL! An amalgamation between Velika & Jadie 🥹

Mama got her wish & visited her home again.

Mama had a multitude of visitors 🥰

Scott & I got the lurgy for 5 days & couldnt visit mama 🤧 I got better & stayed with her at PCU for 2 days (Wed & Thurs this week). Aleks is there now & hopefully Joey will stay Sunday night 🥰

And … no vomiting or uncontrolled pain! Doing so well since those 3 litres were drained that doctors are talking about discharge!

Home isnt an option, so we’re looking into respite options, as short lived as it will be… & it’s expensive!

Mama has agreed that letting go of her home is for the best (after a gentle conversation with Hannah 🫶🏼). So Aleks & I need to get to work sorting stuff out next week!

The fluid is slowly coming back as mum is getting more & more out of breathe 😣

We are going to ask the chaplain to do mums funeral service because her Macedonian priest won’t… “The Macedonian Church doesn’t support euthanasia… we don’t get to choose when we are born… we don’t get to choose when we die. We need to suffer to earn our place in heaven”. I’m sorry, but what an absolute crock of s**t! They don’t believe in cremation either… I’m proud of mama for staying in control & doing what’s right for her… sorry God, your rules are outdated 🙅‍♀️

Onto a brighter topic…

Aleks is building an app! A memorial app for mama… it will have a timeline, stories with audio & a gallery. He’s a bit clever 👀
Problem is, keeping mama awake long enough to get the info 🥴