Pat and Carmel

Some sad news came last week. Pat Mahoney, Elvie's great friend, rang to say she was coming up to the farm to visit, as she does before Christmas most years, only this time she broke the news that she was under treatment for lung cancer. Pat had been a heavy smoker for what must be close to 50 years until she bravely gave up the fags four years ago.
She started work for Elvie in her Sth.Yarra florist shop in the early 1960's. It was a pivotal time in our family history. My father, Lyle, who would have turned 82 on the first of December had he not died last March, received an inheritance from a wealthy aunt. He purchased the florist shop, not the freehold, the business, for an absurd sum. Within twelve months he was out of there, the business not delivering what he'd hoped financially, and he no longer able to stand the confinement of four walls each day. Elvie, her three children now at school, had gone to help out in the shop answering Lyle's SOS. She had no background in floristry but this grocer's daughter was an able bookkeeper, had good phone manner, and was a natural tea maker and floor sweeper. And no less importantly, she was a quick learner, adaptable, and had the determination and persistence you'd expect from the offspring of a sergeant of the 57th battalion who'd served more than 1000 days overseas, including the western front, in WW1.
Elvie employed a shop manager/florist, and a junior, a teenage girl named Carmel. The manager brought to Elvie's attention, after some time, that he believed Carmel was helping herself from the till. Elvie sacked her, making no accusations, citing unsuitability. Not long after she discovered it was actually the manager who was rifling the till, so he went too. She employed a new manager, the prickly but efficient, blue rinsed, Ruby Gilbert, and a florist , Pat Mahoney. Ten years of successful business followed.
Pat was a gun florist. A tall, attractive lady who always retained her youthful looks and good humour, she moved into the residence behind and above the shop with her alcoholic husband. Despite the alcoholic husband, who would not hesitate to give his wife a black eye in drunken rage, and the fact that Pat was catholic and a heavy smoker, Elvie and Pat clicked. They needed and supported one and other through many difficult times. Elvie sold her florist business, which had a staff of seven by this time, in the early 1970's, not long after Elvie and Lyle bought the land at Emerald with a vision of growing trees for foliage.
Many years later, mid/late 1980's, one of the shops we delivered foliage to in Melbourne was 'Blossom's of Toorak'. The owner of this business was no less than young Carmel, a generation later. Having known me as a child, she always greeted me warmly and it was a pleasure to go to her shop. To cut a long story short, we stopped delivering to Melbourne in the early 1990's, instead selling to wholesalers who picked up at the farm. This didn't suit Carmel, who couldn't abide the wholesaler's prices. She began driving up to the farm once a week to buy foliage and posies. She'd bring her mother with her for the drive. It was as much a social thing as it was business.
Carmel's mother, we learnt, was not her mother by birth. She used to live across the road from Carmel's family, and having no children of her own she took an interest in her. Carmel's parents were alcoholics who neglected her dreadfully. Her adoptive mother went to her parents one day and asked them could she adopt her, as she'd grown to love the 4 year old girl dearly. Of course Carmel thought of her adoptive mother as real mother, and has looked after her faithfully in her old age. Carmel rang last week to say she couldn't make it, her mother, who in recent months had moved into a nursing home, had died.
Pat's husband died of drink related illness decades ago and Pat has lived in a flat in St.Kilda and works in an opportunity shop. She has one married daughter who was born in the early days at the Sth.Yarra shop.
Carmel never married and lives alone. She's had a florist business all these years, in Toorak, where she pays rent. An amazing achievement. I think she'll probably retire shortly as her lease is due to be renewed.