Victor Chang Memorial Wall - Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
S 33° 52.762 E 151° 13.251
56H E 335457 N 6249794
This Memorial Wall for Victor Chang is at the north east corner of Green Park, opposite the St Vincents Hospital, where he made a great contribution to medicine.
Waymark Code: WMXRVK
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 02/21/2018
Views: 0
Victor Chang (1936 - 1991) was born in Shanghai to Australian-born Chinese parents, and grew up in Hong Kong before moving to Australia. He became a doctor through the University of Sydney, and worked at St Vincent's Hospital - which is just over the road. After further training in England returned at Australia, eventually setting up the heart and lung transplant unit at St Vincent's.
It is understood, from the trial of a couple of men, that an extortion attempt was made, where Dr Chang was shot fatally in the head in the suburb of Mosman. [More details can be found in the Wikipedia article:
Victor Chang ]
Directly opposite the St Vincent's [Public] Hospital, and diagonally opposite the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, is this Memorial Wall. It has four slightly curved sandstone blocks that abut each other. with the left-hand one having a cast sculpture of Dr Victor Chang, and the other three blocks having cast, and embedded bronze text; presumably from his daughter, Vanessa.
The text of the three blocks reads:
I close my eyes. A final dedication.
Isn't time amazing? How the years slip away.
Suddenly and sadly you are only a memory now and
finally I have found the time to sit down and write this
dedication to you. I admit I have procrastinated,
perhaps because this is a tangible affirmation that you
are gone, something that has taken me a long, long
time to accept.
Where are you now? We all thought you were
immortal. People still approach me and say "I'm so
sorry about your Father, he was a great man", and
I think - my God you're never coming back are you?
You know I play that day - 4 July 1991 - back to
myself in my mind all the time. I ask myself why?
Why did you resist and put up a fight Dad? Why
didn't you let those men get what they wanted and
walk away? Were you in pain when they took your life
--
away? I pray that you died peacefully, without pain;
this is something that will taunt me for the rest of
my life. I know you are peaceful now.
In the evenings when I hear the turn of a key in the
front door, I close my eyes and expect to wee you walk
through the door and feel the pat of your hand on my
head. I close my eyes and hear your voice echo in the
kitchen, is Dad talking in there. I close my eyes and
smell hospital corridors on your shirts that now belong
to your sons. I still see scraps of your hand writing on
cards and notes that are buried in my drawers and I
remember the skin of your surgeon's hands, made soft
through years of careful washing. I sometimes look in
the mirror and see traces of your face staring back at
me - a smile, a frown - the image of a Father. I still
believe that one day you'll me to say that it was
all a big mistake and that you're coming home.
--
Not one day has passed without me thinking of you,
I expect I always will. Sometimes I burn a candle
for you in St Mary's Cathedral, and I cry. I realise
that we only loved you as any family would love
their Father, whilst your patients saw you as their
saviour, a miracle worker.
From your death I've learnt that greed distorts
and destroys. That each life is a precious and often
fragile thing, taste it, smell it, touch it, laugh at it,
embrace it. Appreciate little moments, make the most
of what you have; savour each memory; tell the
people you love that you love the - all the time - not
just when something goes wrong. Have compassion
for others, make your time worthwhile.
Life must be celebrated, death will be mourned;
besides I have my memories and when I miss you
I just close my eyes.
[Any errors in transcribing, are mine!]
Visited: 1620, Thursday, 15 June, 2017