I loved my mother dearly. She and I had a special relationship. As a child she would, when not working fulltime, come and watch my Physical Culture competitions and go and watch John when he was involved in Scouting sports days, as well as watching him play soccer on a Saturday afternoon as he got older. I remember mum doing a lot of baking, my favourite being her peanut cookies, and she would make the best lemon butter, which I would sneak into the kitchen and eat out of the pot with a spoon whilst it was still warm. Mum was born in 1912 in Hunters Hill and nearly died at birth. She told me, after a difficult home birth, the doctor pronounced her dead. She was given to her Grandmother to be taken away whilst the doctor dealt with her mother. As her Grandmother carried her down the corridor, she tripped on a small step leading to the kitchen, mum flew up in the air, and when caught in her Granny’s arms, took a deep breath and much to everybody’s surprise, breathed. Apart from severe Croup at age 7 which nearly ended her life again, mum led a healthy life up to her 60’s. She always told me she was given a second chance at life, and even just a couple of weeks ago said she still could not believe she had made it to 98 years of age. She was the second eldest of four children, and remained close to her older sister Nell, and her two brothers Bert and Les. Whilst Nell and Bert are no longer with us, Les the youngest is now 93 and living in a retirement villa in reasonable health. Mum told me as a child she used to chase the local boys playing tag and climbing large fig trees as well as any boy. She was a bit of a tomboy as a child and loved watching football later in life. At 21, she was involved in Vigoro (which was apparently similar to softball). It was during one of these games that her mouth met a bubbler following the game, leading to a full set of dentures. Mum used to go to the beach and picnics with a very large crowd of young friends, and would go away on weekends with her best friend and later bridesmaid, Beatrice. They remained true friends for life. Mum visited Beatrice at her Nursing Home up until her death. Mum began school at Gladesville Public age 7 later than most children due to childhood illness. She left school at age 14 and along with her old sister Nell, she began working in the Nestles Chocolate Factory to help support the family. When her father passed away at age 44, Mum and Nell became the sole breadwinners at only 21 and 24 respectively. Mum worked as a nanny for a family in Woolwich in between caring for her elderly mother who passed away at 51 years, and her two younger brothers Bert and Les. Mum lived through the Great Depression and World War II. She worked as Clerk at Balm Paints in Mortlake, taking phone orders and helping wherever the women were needed at the Factory whilst the men were at War. She became very frugal in keeping literally everything, never throwing anything out. Up until the day she moved into the Nursing Home she had a closet of unused tea towels. None of us were ever sure what she was planning to do with over 300 tea towels, but it must have been a legacy of the Depression. She said during those hard years, life was tough but generally happy surrounded by many friends. Mum was engaged at 23 years of age to Harold until just 3 months before her impending marriage, he was killed in a road accident. She was lucky then to meet dad just 6 months later but she told him that she couldn’t date him as she was still grieving her loss. She met dad again 3 years later dressed in his soldier’s uniform ready for War. They dated till dad was shipped to New Guinea. Dad and mum had a compromise for their Saturday outings. One week he would take her to the Pictures (he was a lolly boy and said he had seen so many movies, he was over the theatre) the alternate Saturday they were off to the Footy. After 5 years apart caused by the War, they married and built a life together. We were born 4 years later. They didn’t have much money and both worked very hard fulltime all of their married lives, however they both very loving parents and gave us what they could. In their later years together, dad called mum “The Queen” as a nickname, as it was she who ran the “Palace”. As a child I remember her “running” a lot as she was working fulltime as a hospital cook and following an injury in the kitchen, was transferred to duties looking after the nurses living quarters at the hospital. I remember her sitting us in front of our new TV at the age of 6yrs before going to work at 7am at the hospital which was a few minutes from home and running back to get us off to school (via a neighbour, who took us). This procedure was repeated till she arrived home from work at 4pm, then cooked and washed etc for the family. She would always fall asleep in the chair exhausted as we were going to bed, only to repeat life at this pace for all of our schooling life (minus the neighbours as we got older). Dad was a shift worker at the Ferries in Sydney, so the full burden of raising us fell on mum. Christmas holidays she would (if dad was not available to drive us), come with us on the train to Woy Woy and carry our entire luggage for our 2 week stay with Nell at Ettalong. I remember our last year there. It was so hot and we had to take the train, then bus, before walking to Nell’s house. By the time she had walked us to Nell’s she was absolutely exhausted. It took her a couple of days to recover before heading back to Sydney to work fulltime yet again, till it was time for her to repeat the trek to collect us. We had every year with mum and Nell as young children, walking to the beach everyday and walking to the local carnival at night. We would all go to Palm Beach in Sydney for a 2 week beach holiday in August (yes, wintertime!) each year as teenagers. Each morning John and I would go fishing and proudly bring home our daily catch for mum to cook for breakfast. They were usually tiny fish full of bones and too small to really have a lot of flesh on them, but she would faithfully bone and cook them telling us how great our catch was. Mum always cooked each meal during the holiday, as we could never afford to eat out. She would often say, “I am doing the same household work in this flat as I do at home, some holiday”. I reflect back now as an adult and really admire her for her full commitment as a wonderful older mother. She had us at 42 years of age. I became very close to mum from the age of 24. In between boyfriends, we would go to the movies, dinner, shopping, and drives in the car with mum in the front and my dog on the back seat. When I married, I would talk on the phone everyday about “stuff” in general and she was overjoyed with the arrival of my three beautiful children. Her and dad would arrived for visits at 6.30am and sit outside in the car until they saw the blinds go up in our house, then come in laden always with food like her famous rum balls, and lollies for the children. She was having trouble walking at this stage (being in her 70’s and 80’s), but would sit on a chair and watch the children play and clap them. I really enjoyed sitting talking to her about her life for hours after putting the children to bed when she came up to see us, hearing all about her stories and what life was like for her in the early part of last Century. I remember thinking many times, I was so glad to have been born when I did; life was very hard. Mum adored all of her grandchildren. Speaking for my children, Ashleigh, Courtney and Cristiaan spent much of their childhood with their Grandparents. In the years before going into Buckland, mum would often have the children stay at her house in Putney for weekends and over the school holidays. The girls remember each morning waking up to their Grandpa waiting for them at 6am in their dining room with a bowl of cornflakes caked in sugar. At 9am sharp, mum would meet them in the kitchen and make her famous butter-soaked toast and scrambled eggs. The girls would then go out to the backyard and rake up the leaves with their Grandpa, and help collect oranges from the trees for marmalade. As a reward the girls would usually go for a walk their Grandpa “to the park”, promising their Grandma that they wouldn’t spoil their appetite with any ‘sweets’ from the local shop. It was rare during these walks that the girls actually went to the park. Most of the time they would be down at the local fish and chip shop having an ice-cream or a dollars worth of chips with their Grandpa, followed by a lemonade chaser to hide the smell of the chips! In the afternoon, the girls would often learn to knit or play cards with their Grandma, or head to boat ramp to watch the Catamarans with their Grandparents. As the kids got older and after dad died, mum would often have Ashleigh over for dinner after she had finished at Uni, and Courtney and Cristiaan would visit during the school holidays. When mum moved to Buckland, Cristiaan would take his school awards and reports up to show her, and Ashleigh would visit every time she could get away from Canberra. Mum didn’t understand Ashleigh’s profession and thought she was a doctor “working with the head”. She was very proud of her and would show the nurses Ashleigh’s graduation photo from Sydney Uni. Courtney always spend a lot of time with her after coming home from Uni, visiting and telling mum about her course. Mum would always ask, “Are you teaching the kids to dance, and are you still working at the pub?”. Courtney made mum laugh just last week playing ‘peek-a-boo’ at the end of her bed. She was also very proud of Jade and Lauren with Lauren completing her degree in Architecture and now studying for her Masters, and Jade in her second semester studying Marine Biology at Macquarie. She adored her grandchildren. They were her life as she got older. Mum came on a Cruise to Tasmania with us for her 80th birthday, bringing with her a friend also named Edna. We had a wonderful 10 days together with mum; she was pretty deaf by now and we were on a Russian Cruise Liner with a crew that didn’t understand English very well. It was a pretty humorous combination. She would order her meals and between the confused waitress and mum, she would end up with a tableful of multiple breakfast orders or dinner orders. Geoff would sit there shaking his head, trying to undo the chaos! Every Christmas and Easter, mum and dad were with us until dad’s health failed. After dad passed away Geoff would drive down and get mum to bring her up for Easter and Christmas. For the last 2 years that she was at the Nursing Home, Rhonda and the girls would join us going up to see her Christmas morning. She always enjoyed seeing all of us and was very grateful. Again she was not alone on her birthdays at Buckland. The staff said mum’s birthdays always went for a week, with cake and visits from her family. The staff would celebrate her and other patient’s birthdays each month with a special afternoon tea. They supplied a large cake and party food, and the alcohol would come out, just like a real birthday party at home. Mum also had wonderful women called Beryl, from Home Care that would come and clean her house and do her shopping during the last ten years prior to mum going to the Nursing Home. Beryl and mum had a special friendship and I thank Beryl for visiting mum at Buckland during her time there. Many times I would have to rely on Beryl in those last 2 years that mum was at home, to fill in the blanks to tell me how mum was between my visits or if she thought I needed to come down immediately. Mum’s hearing was always a problem in the last 10yrs, after many visits to the Audiologist and a number of hearing aids, we decided that the best form of communication was a writing pad and pen. The hearing aids were discarded and even the last 2 years, a great supply of pad and pens keep the lines of communication open. The staff at Buckland were fabulous in the care of mum, something for which I will always be very grateful. They knew mum just by her booming voice and loved her. She always asked the nurses if they had had their lunch and not to fuss over her but look after themselves. Her favourite nurse Alice, who called her mum, held her hand as she took one last breath on Tuesday. When she died on Tuesday there were many tears from the nurses and some came in to kiss her goodbye. I was very touched by this. They had become part of her extended family. Mum’s health declined rapidly over the last 2 months. She told me often she had had enough and wanted to go, and that she had lived a longer life then was expected. I was lucky enough to have her tell me quite distinctly on Monday afternoon, “Lynne, I have to go” she had made a gesture with her outstretched hand towards the wall and whispered a few words that I couldn’t understand a few minutes before telling me she “had to go”. That was the last time she spoke to me and I believe she was being guided home then. Mum, we will all miss you dearly. I personally will miss you more then you will ever know. You were the best mum, and I have been honoured to have been your daughter. I love you very much. Lynne. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx