Elvie, who has trouble reading letters these days, relies on Meredith to read her mail. I was fortunate to be in the kitchen at the farm a few days before Christmas making a cup of tea late in the day when Meredith was reading a letter from Elvie's cousin Dorothy. Dorothy is about Elvie's age but the two ladies haven't had much contact during their lives, in fact there has been none until now that I can recall.
Dorothy is the daughter of Elvie's Uncle Oz, her father's brother. She said in her letter she was sorry they'd had little contact, especially as Edgar and Oz (Austin) were close, loving brothers who had both served in WW1. Oz lost a leg after being wounded at Fromelles on 19 July 1916. Edgar was not present on the first day of the Fromelles battle when 2000 Australians were killed but spent the next three days searching for survivors and removing the dead. Dorothy said my grandmother Annie, Edgar's wife, wrote to Oz every year on the 19 July, and Oz would answer immediately.
Dorothy told Elvie in her letter that after a happy childhood she worked for the Immigration Dep't. and was sent to Corowa in NSW. There she met the man with whom she felt she could spend her life, a Polish migrant, and they married in 1951. I can't remember her husband's name, but he'd had a terrible time in the war and just wanted a quiet lifestyle growing food. They found a cottage on five acres of land, somewhere near Sydney, where they grew 3000 tomato plants each year and fruit trees and started raising their family. When the family outgrew the cottage they managed to get a bigger house on ten acres and continued growing fruit and vegies. Dorothy's husband passed away a few years ago. She now lives with a daughter in the Blue Mountains where they have plenty of room and she invited Elvie to come and stay anytime she would like.
It was a heartwarming letter that made me grateful for Christmas, if for no other reason than it inspires communication within families and between old friends. I asked Elvie why she didn't have much to do with her cousins throughout her life and she said it was because of Oz's wife, who would have nothing to do with her father Edgar or his family, even though they lived in a neighbouring suburb. Apparently in the minds of Oz's wife and her sister, Edgar was supposed to marry the sister when he returned from the war. Two returning brothers marrying sisters, the 'two little girls in blue'. This was never in Edgar's plans, as the album of photo's, postcards and memorabilia sent home to his fiancee Annie shows.
Edgar and Oz continued their brotherly mateship throughout their lives. Edgar, a grocer, delivered to Oz's house every week but the wife would never come to the door to say hello let alone invite her brother in law inside. She died before Oz and Edgar did, having gone quite mad, Elvie thinks, but by then the offspring had gone their own ways.
It was a heartwarming letter that made me grateful for Christmas, if for no other reason than it inspires communication within families and between old friends. I asked Elvie why she didn't have much to do with her cousins throughout her life and she said it was because of Oz's wife, who would have nothing to do with her father Edgar or his family, even though they lived in a neighbouring suburb. Apparently in the minds of Oz's wife and her sister, Edgar was supposed to marry the sister when he returned from the war. Two returning brothers marrying sisters, the 'two little girls in blue'. This was never in Edgar's plans, as the album of photo's, postcards and memorabilia sent home to his fiancee Annie shows.
Edgar and Oz continued their brotherly mateship throughout their lives. Edgar, a grocer, delivered to Oz's house every week but the wife would never come to the door to say hello let alone invite her brother in law inside. She died before Oz and Edgar did, having gone quite mad, Elvie thinks, but by then the offspring had gone their own ways.
Elvie then told me that when Edgar was on a ship waiting to leave Cairo for France after his battalion had been training in Egypt, a ship came into port carrying more Australian soldiers. Without any prior knowledge of it, he had an overpowering feeling that his brother was on that ship. He rushed to the side and back along the ship calling out as loud as he could, "Has anyone seen Ozzie Wilson?" A familar voice called back from the sea of faces on the other ship.
"Here I am Ted." There was his brother waving back to him.
"Here I am Ted." There was his brother waving back to him.
1 comment:
The ending just gave me Goose-Bumps.
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