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“The first thing he said to the boys was ‘I’ve got a square bum’,” said brother-in-law Darrell Packe. The other message to the boys, spelt out on an alphabetical board, was a Star Wars quote: “Luke, I am your father”, written with “a big smile on his face”.
Leonard’s improvement has been a huge relief for his family, who are only now able to properly start grieving for Leonard’s wife, Maria Packe-Leonard.
The 53-year-old died on July 21, 10 days after developing influenza type A symptoms.
John Leonard with wife Maria Packe-Leonard and their sons.
The otherwise fit and healthy nurse had gone to the hospital ED the day before her death and was checked over and discharged. The next day she was “a little bit better” in the morning, but went quickly downhill and succumbed to her illness.
Shortly after Packe-Leonard’s death, her husband started deteriorating as well, Packe said.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for the family as Leonard was placed in an induced coma and flown to Auckland so specialist machinery could be used to assist his lungs.
“He responded well to that treatment, hence they were able to wean him off that machine and get him back to Wellington,” Packe said.
Having Leonard awake and communicating had been “pretty special”.
“He came close to death on a number of occasions so to have him back and able to communicate is very, very special for everyone involved and especially his boys.”
John Leonard, with his sons Jed and Sam and late wife Maria Packe-Leonard.
The boys, 14 and 15, have been doing well despite dealing with “a lot”.
“This has come in waves, because they’ve obviously lost their mum and while they’re dealing with that, having to be strong for their dad. So yeah, hard to describe,” Packe said.
“We’re only just able to start grieving Maria properly, just due to being so concerned about John, really. All our energy went into helping John and being there for John. [There’s] a couple of waves of different emotions at the moment.”
The plan had always been to delay Packe-Leonard’s funeral until her husband was well enough to attend.
“At times it didn’t seem like it might work out that way, but it looks now like he’s going to recover and we can have a funeral with him there and with him being part of the planning, which will be very special.”
Leonard has been “humbled” to see the donations and messages on a Givealittle page set up for the family. The page has raised more than $73,000 to go towards the family’s expenses.
“In his mind, now that he can read all the messages and see all the well-wishers, that’s really been special for him and it’s buoyed him and that will help his recovery, you know, just knowing he’s got so many people who care.”
From here, Leonard remains in the ICU as he works to recover from the damage to his lungs. Having been able to move very little over the last month, he will have physical rehabilitation to go through, “and there’s the mental stuff he’s got to deal with there with losing his wife”.
There is no knowing how much longer he will need to remain in hospital.
“We’re still on the rollercoaster a little bit ... we can’t get off yet.”
Packe earlier said he wanted people to know the boys had been watching the Givealittle page and were reading every comment that came in.
“We’re watching that and it’s quite humbling. You see people put 100 bucks in and you see people put five bucks in. It all means the same to us.”
The boys “get a buzz out of how many people are supporting them”.
Packe also wanted to thank the community for the support they had received.
“It’s been fantastic how the community has been around all this, I just want to reiterate all that.”
Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley group director operations Jamie Duncan said Packe-Leonard would be “deeply missed” as a nurse for the Lower Hutt area.
“Maria was a popular and highly valued member of our Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley whānau.”
Duncan said they were supporting those who worked with Packe-Leonard closely.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
