Swains Island Pictures

The baptismal rites of Mgr Michael McPartland SMA, Apostolic Prefect of the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha, were finished during the Catholic Church of St. Joseph at 9 am. There followed a welcome at Prince Philip Hall for the whole island. This was a great year for the folks who were overcome by the help of the group.

Connor, as you all know, was conceived a year ago on September 13 with a number of herniations. On September 29, the familiy was summoned to the infirmary, where we were informed that he should be baptized, as it was hardly likely that he would live through the day.

Being baptized, he stayed two overnight in the operation room before he returned to the wards. On October 27, the familiy was recalled to surgery and it was said that there was nothing else to do, and even if the food probe were exchanged, we could only prolong the ineluctable.

However, the ancestor insisted that if he had 1% chances of getting it, the pipe was replaced and he stayed in hospitals for 77 nights, 94 nights before travelling with a physician to get health care in Cape Town, where he stayed for the last nine month and was hospitalized at the Red Cross Children's Clinic.

Great-grandfather Harold, great-grandmother Amy holds Connor with both Rodney and Sarah. In the foreground are Sarah with Connor's grandfather James, grandmother Felicity, Sarah's sibling Norman and Connor'sib. As to Sean the Administrator, the Island Council, the heads of departments who gave up 7. 5% of their yearly budget towards the Medicinal budget, and although not all were expended on Connor, we are Acognized that its medicinal cost was high.

Your input to the island as a whole will be appreciated by Kobus, who has taken care of many of the packages, who has always been compassionate. The physicians (despite contradictory results), the nursing staff and the local authority, be it financial, be it the period in the clinic or words of support, all this assisted us through a very busy year.

Though Connor is not out of the mountain yet, we can thank God for having come a long way and for further improving his wellbeing.