What made you sad today?

[David]

[stui magpie]

It's on my list, I just have to get the motivation to do it.

Maybe I can convince her to do it herself so I don't have to sit through hours of talking.

[Morrigu]

^ don't be such a grumpy old bastard

I love listening to my mum talk about her years growing up - so different to my experience - although sometimes the timing is shall we say problematic!

My uncle is penning a book and he is calling it - " It's a long way from Tipperary to Coraki"

[stui magpie]

^

All my life I've been that person who others find safe to talk to. They open up an tell me stuff I have no interest in but it seems to make them feel better to talk about it.

I've gone a month or two a few years back without talking to a human being other than a checkout chick at the supermarket and I loved it

[Morrigu]

^ I get that - I really get that - but mum is different. Maybe because they gave her 6 weeks to live 3 years ago and I had to really confront not having her around.

The stories are worth telling......

[think positive]

Only a little sad personally, and that's for Mum. Part of her past died over the weekend and it's put her in touch with her own mortality.

One of her cousins, 1 of triplets, died on Saturday morning. I've met them a few times but not enough to feel much, but to Mum it's her childhood.

Triplet girls, 18 months older than her, born to her mums sister, premature. 2 were identical the third not. Dunno how that works.

I've heard all the stories, when they were born they were so small their mother put them in shoe boxes on top of the wood stove to keep them warm. (no humi cribs and fancy tech back in the 1930's).

The trips lived in town, mum was raised on a farm. On Saturdays, her Dad would load the family into the horse and gig and head into town to do the weeks shopping. Mum's mum would do the shopping, Cliffy would go to the pub and mum and her younger brother would stay at the trip's house which was a weekly adventure.

Little things, like arriving in the morning while the trip's were eating corn flakes for breakfast. Mum didn't know what these things were floating in milk, she though it was horse chaff as she usually ate either porridge or chops for breakfast on the farm.

The trips of course would often gang up on mum, them being 18 months older and 3 of them, but they learned quickly not to mess with the farm bitch. One time, after putting up with their teasing for the day, as soon as her father arrived in the horse and gig from the pub and went in the house, she grabbed the horse whip from the gig, rounded up the triplets with the whip and herded them into the chicken coop where her brother was waiting by the door to lock them in. (Both her brother and dad did pretty much anything she wanted)

Another time, the trips decided to experiment by giving the farm bitch a hair cut. Didn't go well and ended even less well when cliffy arrived and tore strips off the 3 for daring to touch his daughter's hair.

Cliffy was a piece of work in his own right. 5'8", built like a chimpanzee with long arms and bandy legs, damn near as strong as one too. Left home at 10 after having a blue with his stepfather (unsure if he even knew it was his step father, his sisters didn't know they had a different father), took off on his horse and never went back.

I'm not sad so much about the death of mums cousin, I hardly knew her, she was nearly 80, had Alzheimer's, so she's most likely in a better place even if their is no afterlife. The bit that makes me sad is that another link to our rapidly forgotten past is gone.

Someone up in Toc said to mum before she moved down here that she should write a book about her life, cos she did a fair bit of stuff. I'm tempted to get one of those dictaphone things or just a bunch of memory chips for the phone, feed her a few wines over a period of a few weekends (like that would be hard) and just get her to talk (even less hard than the wine), record it all, and when I pull the pin from work I could sit down and knock it together in book form.

Memoirs of the bitch from the bush who refused to know her place.

Good idea.
A lot of people commented at Mums funeral what an amazing life she had had, (evacuated from England, lived in Hong Kong and South Africa, served in the RAAF in Germany, married a pig, gokart champion in Cyprus, etc etc). I had never looked at it like that. I have a box with all mums photos and letters and things and it's fascinating. I'm kicking myself I didn't know about the box while she was alive, I'd give a fair bit to go back and talk about them with her.

And your right, you are easy to talk too!

[HAL]

Have you tried searching the Internet?

[mandy]

People are doing that a lot now and video taping them. I think they're called Living Legacy interviews or something like that. It gives families an opportunity to get all the information before it's too late. Get the kids to ask questions too, anything they want to know and what they think their kids might want to know. Not just your Mum's history, but finding how she felt about things too.

I wish I'd done that with Nan. She loved to tell stories and we all have some, but nobody has them all. Going through her photo's when she was gone I found photo's of her Dad and my Pop's Dad in the army. THEY WERE ANZAC's! And I had no idea. My Dad had no idea. Now I've become obsessed in researching their stories. Would be a lot easier if Nan was still here to help.

Move it closer to the top of your list stui. When it's too late you'll realise there's actually nothing more important in the world to do. xx

[Morrigu]

[Morrigu]

Lost a mother today having number 8

That's too many but that's a conversation for another day not today.

Think I'll have a mental health day tomorrow!

[stui magpie]

^

Bugger,

Try not to take it personally, I'm sure it wasn't your fault.

[ronrat]

Great friends of my parents lost a 14 year old grandson in a motorbike accident on the weekend. Hid Granddad asked him why he wouldn't wear a helmet on his dirt bike and he laughed, 3 days later he was hit by a car on the side road north of Baundaberg and they turned his life support off Sunday.5 receipients of his organs will have a good christmas but a family is devastated Promising sportsman as well Keep safe people.

[Morrigu]

That's very sad Ronrat

[think positive]

Reading about the truck being driven into a crowd in Germany. How the hell do we stop this? You can't ban trucks. So bloody evil.
May the victims rest in peace. Xxx















And I'd be happy if the driver was tied between two slowly reversing trucks. Scum of the earth.

[KenH]

My sister fell off her horse yesterday in the bush, she was with a friend who called an ambulance they had trouble finding them and she was waiting for over an hour. Got to the Ballarat Base Hospital and found she had 6 broken ribs 2 of which are broken twice, a punctured lung and a broken hip. A helicopter ride and now she is at the Alfred getting operated on today!

Not a nice time over Xmas for her and our families as we celebrate all coming together. We are very grateful that she will heal and it could have been a lot worse.
Everyone please stay safe and enjoy Xmas!