I am writing this Postscript in May 2020. Michael would have turned 45 this year, an incredible thought. For me he will always be 27, the age at which he died.
I have upgraded the original website that I established for him in 2003 in the months after his death. I used very basic software for it at that time, Yahoo SiteBuilder. This software has not been well supported by Yahoo and by others who took over the management of it later. So I have now converted the original website to a blog, run by WordPress. The original text is still very much the same but there are more pictures, and the quality is so much better. There is also more certainty that this website will continue to be technically supported for a long time yet.
I am now in my 80th year and, sadly, now a widower. In my home Michael’s photo (as above) looks down on me every day whenever I work on my computer. His smile never fails to lift my spirits whenever I look up at him. Many prints from his last great adventure now adorn the walls of my home.
This is the last picture of my family. It was taken at Sydney Airport at the time of Michael’s departure for Delhi in July 2001.
This occasion marked the beginning of his great personal story, as recorded in the chapters of this website, that was about to unfold over the remaining 16 months of his life. It has been my great privilege to have been able to place on record his own account of this great adventure.
Chris Danckwerts (Michael’s father)
(cdanckwerts@hotmail.com)
27 May 2020
Michael's Story 