Tanya Heaslip

Like I left and then I'd just go back and I'd go back and I'd see him each time, just a little bit less each time.

Then I met my husband, who is the most wonderful man in the world.

And we were living in Margaret River in WA and I got a phone call from Misha.

So Misha and Yada, the two Czech-Australian men who introduced me to Karel and they said Karel has cancer.

And I hadn't seen him then for a couple of years and I just couldn't believe it.

And they said he's shut off all contact with everyone.

And I managed to find this old card on which he'd written his mobile number when he got a mobile phone after I'd left, well, after I'd left Prague.

They didn't have them back then.

And I rang it and he said, it is true, it's some bad theatre.

He's dying then?

He's dying.

And he said, and now I will tell you I could not tell you when you were here, but I loved you and I always loved you, but it was too hard to say that.

you were always going to go back to Australia.

And he died not long after that.

And Yada rang me and he gave me this story about him.

He said, this is what Cuddle was like.

We were on a tram coming back from a party.

Back in the old days, the tram, they had those night trams and they wandered their way through all the suburbs.

And Cuddle was telling a joke about, you know, a Russian minister and a Czech minister and all the workers.

Very Good Soldier's fake-ish story.