A PARTY held at the Irish Club last Saturday night was not just about acknowledging Mount Isa City Mayor Tony McGrady's 70th birthday, or even about the 41 years he has worked in politics.
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It is also partially a celebration of how a man overcame a three-month medical death sentence.
Cr McGrady received a phone call from his doctor about 4pm on a Friday in 2006, telling him he had a brain tumour.
At the time Cr McGrady was Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Cr McGrady said at the time he was impatient to be attending a meeting, and so hurriedly asked the doctor what the diagnosis meant.
He was told he only had three months to live.
After the phone call, Cr McGrady walked to his garden to examine his roses, believing he would never see them bloom the following year.
Cr McGrady officially retired from state politics, and received much support from well-wishers, including from former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss and from Governor-General Dame Quentin Bryce.
He remembered the ``hundreds of medicines, pills and potions'' and get well cards sent to his Brisbane-based office.
Unfortunately, Cr McGrady also received negativity in his ``hour of need''.
Cr McGrady received a complaint from a Townsville-based doctor after admitting in a television interview the comfort he received through prayer.
The doctor was frustrated that a political figure was sending a public message that prayer could replace a doctor when urgent medical attention was needed, Cr McGrady said.
But eight years later, Cr McGrady triumphantly celebrated his birthday with family, friends and the Mount Isa community; one partygoer even travelling from Perth for the occasion.
Saturday was also 41 years to the day that Cr McGrady was first voted in as a Mount Isa councillor.
His wife of 47 years, Sandra McGrady, said she and their children Susan and Paul were ``very proud of Tony of everything he's achieved.''
``We've had a wonderful life together, Tony was always in politics since the day I met him,'' Mrs McGrady said.
Mrs McGrady often attended local functions on behalf of Cr McGrady and helped run the Mount Isa electoral office when he was busy travelling as a Queensland minister.
In their years together they had both worked well as a team, Mrs McGrady said.
``That's why we have a successful marriage,'' she said.
Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie once said in Parliament the only person who could beat Cr McGrady in an election among Mount Isa voters was Mrs McGrady.
