We were in terrible financial distress but at least Grandma could get around again. She was able to get up after about three weeks. She had some internal complaint and the doctor came to see her twice a week. Early in 1899 Grandma became very ill and was unable to work.

He was a hawker, carrying stores, drapery, medicines, anything he could sell. Uncle had three children, all very young, but had lost his wife in an accident at a railway crossing. My ten-year-old sister Laura went to help our uncle at his place at Campbells Creek near Castlemaine.

My brother Eric, then twelve, had to leave school and go to work. She was also an expert midwife nearly all the babies born in and around Barkers Creek were attended and helped by Grandma Carr.

She went out house-cleaning, washing and ironing. Grandma was shocked at hearing all this after the ordeal she had just been through. Forced to find work when Father died, she had married a man who had first employed her as a housekeeper, and our two older brothers were finding it hard to get jobs. Our mother was to send money to support us, but although she wrote many letters she always made excuses for not being able to send us anything. She wrote to my mother telling her of our plight and asked for financial help. After this tragedy Grandma became very worried. He trapped rabbits and my brothers used to go out picking during the fruit season.Įarly in 1898 Grandpa became very ill and he died in October that year. Grandpa depended on odd jobs, such as ploughing and pruning, to get a few pounds to keep us all. Grandma was a small woman in her early sixties. She left the rest of us - Eric, Laura, Roy, Myra and myself - with our grandparents at their small orchard at Barkers Creek, sixty-three miles from Melbourne.Īt seventy-seven, Grandpa was a big man, over six feet tall. When Mother had got over this, she decided to go over to the West still, as Joseph and Vernon were only teenagers. In 1896 Mother received the sad news that Father had died of typhoid fever. My mother stayed at Maidstone with the younger children and my father arranged to send money over to support us until he could find us a home. At that time there were seven children in our family: I had four brothers and two sisters. Gold had been discovered in the West and thousands believed that a fortune was to be made. My father left for Western Australia just after this, taking with him my two older brothers, Joseph and Vernon. I was born in 1894 at Maidstone, Victoria.

A fortunate life by ab facey