I've had a sad life, but you’ve just got to overcome a lot of that and think of the good things, not the bad things. Oh, my Dad? He was only a little boy when they came out from England and the family settled in Heatherton. And there was nothing there. Dad cleared his block and started farming on his own, and then he met his wife who'd come out to see her sister, who had married another one of the Brownfields. When I went to Heatherton School. Yes... ‘Walk all the way’. We had to walk from here... We had to go round up the main road. That was a road to Dandenong... Like that and turn corners and go up right about... Our farm was here, we walked along there and up and up and round till we got to school. That was our walk. And then our walk home at night, and little me when I first started, could hardly walk, you know, going to school. And it was a long way. Sometimes they’d have to get the horse and cart and get me in the jinker to take me to school because I was five, you see, and I used to be so little, you know. Norma was all right. She was older than me. That was my only sister, of course. Dad had to milk the cows. He couldn't come. Mum would come and pick us up from school. Sometimes, not every day. Oh, when you think of it, it was a lot of work. And she had the housework to do. Then she helped Dad in the shed sometimes. Although he had one boy to help. At the back of our house, we had a shed and that’s where the boys that worked for us lived. But all their dirty clothes came over to the laundry, which was opposite. Mum used to have to feed them; Mum had to do all their washing as well. You know, I think of what she did. Then if the boys didn't turn up, she have to help Dad because there was no power then. Nobody had power, electricity. Just ordinary light, kerosene light on the center of the table. And then you had tea at night. That's all we had, candles to get to bed with. Just a white candle with a candlestick. We had those around. I think we’ve given those away. I mean, they were antiques. It’s amazing what I have gone through in mine. And ones before were worse off. But till electricity came and then everybody was laughing, you know. We had light all the time. I remember Norma and I just going around and flipping on all these lights. It was just so good. Oh look, you know, unless you've been through it, you just don't know the value of lights. Yes, it's funny to look back on those days. You think, “Oh, we didn't do that, did we?” No, we had little jobs to do when we were growing up. We had to feed the chooks with wheat every night. Oh, dear, those were the days but we hated doing it. And of course, when we were growing up, we didn't have all busses to pick us up at the gate and all that jazz. First of all, we had a jinker. Funny to look back now, they get in the car and go. But we had to get the horse and get it all ready, put the seats in the back for us so that we could enjoy our picnic. When we were on the farm, we used to always have parties and things like that. We all kept together more. I had about ten good friends. We used to go out together and the people down the road had a farm and they had a big lorry. And on holidays we’d all get in the back of this lorry. They'd put seats around and we’d go for picnics. We had lots of fun, really, and went to the beach and take sandwiches and we'd sit up on the back of this truck, you know, it was really lovely I suppose I’d be in my teens when my sister was killed. And she was older than me and she was walking along the wrong side of the road because she always walked that side because certain drivers would pick her up and bring her home. We knew everybody, you see. Cheltenhan and Heatherton. And we knew the people who were going and she was getting... She was at the wrong side of the road so that she could hop in the car and get a lift home. And this other chap came cross and went right across the road and killed her. Yes, they put her into hospital, Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, but she never came out. She had a broken leg and an arm, I think. He was driving very fast, but my Dad, he said it wasn't his fault, it was, you know, it was just a thing that happened and he couldn't blame. It was a foggy night and he just couldn't blame anyone, and he got off. But he was a neighbor and we couldn't do anything else. And so that was... Dad forgave him. And after that, he sold the farm. He couldn't keep going much longer. I really felt that I had to look after Mum and Dad. I think that‘s when it really started. I mean, I was just an ordinary girl and I was the second one. Norma was the eldest. And I think I sort of realized then that I was sort of, would have to think a bit more. I think it hits you like that. It's hard to explain, but it does alter your life when you have a death in it. And we moved into the city. Cheltenham. And then my Mum got sick after that. She had cancer and she's gone in 12 months. So that was a bad time. So that left only me to look after Dad. I mean, he couldn't manage on his own. And then when it was time for me to get married, I mean, I'd met Jack and, you know, I knew it was the right one. And Jack got on very well with my father. And when it was time to engage, I said, “I can't marry you. I've got to look after my father”. He said, “You don't have any worry. He’s coming to live with us”. And that's what happened. A group of us used to go in on the train to Melbourne, to the concerts in the town hall and other places around. That was our night out. Saturday night. So we met on the station and off we went as a group. And then when Jack was home on leave he'd be joining them with his sister and I'd just catch up. I never thought anything more about it, but apparently, he must have got a liking for me or something. I don’t know, it was so long ago. But he'd go back to work again and then go away over to Japan. He had two or three ops there. And apparently he wanted to, all the time he was away, and he wouldn't ask me out each time he was back on leave. He'd come as a group but never make any signs that he was interested in me at all. And I just treated him as one of, you know, that we went out with all together. And then all of a sudden he got me at the station to come home and he said, “I'd like to walk you home tonight.” And I said, “Oh, yes, but it's a long way. You've got to go that way. And you live the opposite way”. Anyhow that’s how it started. And that was the first that I really realized that he liked me. He took my arm and that's all. He didn't want to kiss me and, you know, hug me. Nothing like that at all. He just wanted to talk to me. And that's what he did and asked me would I go out with him. You see that’s about all I can tell you. Brunswick is Melbourne. A suburb of Melbourne. That's where Jack worked. So they built a house for us. The council did, and we lived in that until we came up to Canberra. It was 12 months we lived at Hotel Acton while we were looking for a house. And we saw this block up on the next street up from here. So we got a builder. He wasn't a very good builder, but there weren’t builders around; not a lot of people, you know, building houses. Oh, he made some terrible mistakes. He put a window where the door should have been and things like that. They weren't qualified builders in those days. But then of course, the family grew and we didn't have enough bedrooms. We walked around looking for a unit or another house in this area. And so this was for sale and it was only two years old, this house. So I said, “Oh, that's quite a nice spot”. And it was quiet, not like now with traffic going both ways. Look at this one too. It's lovely, isn't it? It's lovely. It's still my home and I think I'll live in it until I go. Oh, that's our photo from Depot Beach. I've had lots and lots of holidays there with the kids. Yes, three girls and one boy. Nowadays they fly down and fly home again. And it’s so much easier. They’ve got a decent road. Oh no, it's good. It's good to have things modernized. It's gone ahead but I don't want it to go ahead any longer, any further. Oh well, that’s been an exciting morning! I've been listening to myself talk. I didn’t know what I'd have to do. I was starting to beginning to wonder, “What on earth would I say?” Brings back a lot of memories all these things.