|
|
My mother was born in
England, with both of her parents also born there. They migrated to
Australia after the WW2.
My mother had one sibling – a brother, ten years her senior. During
WW2 he had served in the British army.
While in Australia on shore leave, he met a lady that he had married
when the war ended.
My mother’s parents came to Australia to join him, bringing my
mother with them. She was 16.
My father was born in Australia. However, his mother was Welsh and
his father a Scot. Stories about his father are hard to extract from
my father. Possibly, he doesn’t remember much of him. He died when
my father was only 13. Of the few stories he has told is one that
relates the day of his father’s death.
His father worked as a transport worker – he was one of the men who
loaded and unloaded the trucks. Physical work was all he knew – he
probably had little or no education – and he certainly had no
interest in doing a desk job. His doctor had told him that he had a
heart condition and that he had to get out of hard physical work.
Some say he was stubborn. I think he had no choice. On this
particular day he and his workmates had finished work and they were
all on the back of the truck, travelling back to the depot. He was
chatting and joking with the other men as they usually did when he
suddenly stopped and fell over. They say he died instantly.
My father had a brother, but he was six years younger. Being the
oldest remaining male in the family, my father had to go out and
work. He sold newspapers before starting work as an apprentice with
a cabinet maker in East Perth. The company remained on that same
site right up until this year. The building has been pulled down. I
don’t know whether the company has closed, moved or is simply
building a bigger premises. The new building on the old site is now
occupied by a Christian bookshop. |