my mum is certainly my hero. One of 11, abandoned by father and placed in an orphanage. Very thankful to the nuns and others who took care of her. Had to battle stigma but managed to have 5 kids whom she spent her life serving and setting up a future for. She turned out to be a model wife/mother who sacrificed much of herself for her family. As a result of her perseverance she has been able to enjoy her latter days having never owned a home or wealth. She would be despised by modern day feminist however I would not of wished for a better mum.

Hi runner,

I think most women would applaud your mum -
especially feminists for what she did on
her own. Abandoned by her father, life in an
orphanage. I can only image the stigma she copped.
Yet she raised 5 kids with much love and care and
your love for her says it all.

Thank you for sharing.

I love discussions that are generous, sincere,
full of honest sentiment.

Long may they continue.

Dear Foxy,

Yes, our forebears, especially our maternal forebears, have endured a hell of a lot. It's amazing how they - and us - have come through, thanks to their sacrifices.

The accursed Ancestry.com has thrown up at least three female convicts in my family, as well as at least three more who died in childbirth, sometimes still in their twenties. As well, many migrated as paid passengers, probably from WorkHouses or Destitute Asylums.

My grandmother, born in 1902, was raised in the Hull Workhouse, Sculcoates, and given bookkeeping skills by the Barnardos, before working in the kitchens for Lord Samuel, founder of shell and former London Lord Mayor. She married an ex-Camel-Corps soldier who said he had an oatmeal mine out in Australia and needed a bookkeeper. So out they came, to a dirt farm west of Dubbo. Not a farmer, he astutely gave that all away early in 1929 and came back into Sydney. My gran ran away from him with a Hungarian maths teacher.

So my mum didn't go to school until the family came into Glebe, and then only for five or six years. She ran away from home at fourteen in the mid-thirties - how she made a living I don't want to know. She married a drinker, a fireman on the munitions train during the War; she re-married and raised a total of six kids, all of whom went to university, while she did factory work until she retired. Then SHE went to uni, at Newcastle. Loved it.

Yes, she certainly had a hard and interesting life, looking after kids for around fifty years. She died in 2015. I learnt so much from her, and miss her terribly.

Joe

Hi again Foxy,

I'll broaden the discussion and tell you about my Uncle Frank, certainly the jolliest of the clan. Uncle Frank served in New Guinea during WWII. Although he had done the basic training, his weapons were not guns and grenades, rather clippers and scissors, he was a army barber. Legend has it he never left Port Moresby. Uncle reckoned his greatest act of valour for which he never got a VC, was he once cut General Macarthur hair, the fact Macarthur was never in New Guinea, and wasn't in the same army didn't seem to diminish uncles ability to make such a claim. He and his bunch, would drop by the Grandparents property every so often for Sunday lunch, and an afternoon of hair cutting, mostly us kids as the men mostly avoid his haircuts, short back and sides, with his hand clippers and scissors, and the pain that went with it. He was always saying as he cut half your head off; "They also served, those who stood and cut!" He was a shocker of a barber. Uncle Herb would say; "Frank, if they had let you loose at the Japanese to cut their hair, the war would have been over sooner, the Japs would have surrendered because of your torture. And when you cut General Macarthur's hair, how come he didn't have you court marshalled and shot!" But Uncle Frank was a very jolly fella, and the barbs were water off a ducks back to him.

p/s Us kids wouldn't dare question uncle about his hair cutting ability, as he might give you a second scalping if you weren't careful.

Dear Joe,

We've come through thanks to the sacrifices of our
mothers. I've had an easy life compared to hers.

What an incredible Australian story you've got to
tell. You could write a book. I'd read yours rather
than Malcolm Turnbull's (reading his is beginning
to drag quite a bit).

Your mum had a hard life but she shaped you into the
person you are today. Your kids must count their
blessings.

Dear Paul,

Thanks for the story of your Uncle Frank - he sounds
like quite a character. Families are like fudge -
mostly sweet with a few nuts.

I remember the tale our next door neighbour told
of an elderly family member who was getting hard of
hearing. He went to an ear specialist who had him fitted
out for a hearing aid. The old man came back to the
specialist six weeks later - and the doctor asked -

"Well your family must be so happy now that you can hear?"

The old man said - "No they don't know I can now hear.
I just sit around listening to them talk. I've changed
my will three times so far."

.

Dear Foxy,

.

My mother considered that Mothers’ Day was a purely commercial operation. She only accepted to celebrate Mothering Sunday (which fell on Sunday, 22 March this year). In 2021 it will be on Sunday 14 March.

My brother and I used to pick wildflowers on the way home from our local bush-brotherhood church on Mothering Sunday and offer them to her as our gift.

She was a loving and caring mother who gave us confidence in life.

That was a precious gift that has lasted all our lives.

.