Conversation with Bessie
Bessie and her son, John
Bessie is my mum. She is 85 years old and she lives with her grandson, Josh and her dog across the street from me in Eden, NSW. She is strong willed, fiercely independent and an honest lady.
Bessie had great admiration for her mother, Gladys, “because she was a strong woman with tremendous inner strength, she seemed to be able to do everything”. She was very close to her mother, but that did not stop Bessie from occasionally playing pranks on Gladys. She was very sad when her mother passed away later in her life.
When she was 5 years old, Bessie spent approximately 6 years living with her uncle Albert and his wife (who had no kids of their own). Bessie really enjoyed her time with the couple and was doted on by her uncle. Albert wanted to adopt Bessie and his desire was for her to lead a convent life as a nun, however, that was not agreeable with Bessie’s dad. Bessie returned to her family shortly after that discussion.
Bessie married Henry, a sleeper cutter, in 1944 when she was 19 years old. She met him at a dance event in Cooma. Bessie has three kids, John, Ron and Robert and described her kids as “the most important thing in her life today, without family you have nothing to live for”. The happiest moment of Bessie's life was the healthy birth of each of her children.
Bessie was greatly affected by the 1952 bushfires, which burnt vast areas in and around Canberra and down the far South Coast at Eden Nullica State Forest
Although Bessie is not able to get around much these days as she has lost a lot of her mobility and eyesight with age, she still enjoys the company of other seniors and her dog. In our discussion, she said she wished she could regain her eyesight to do all of the things she used to do, such as reading and sewing. All is not lost. We discussed the biggest benefit old age has brought and Bessie summed it up perfectly – “the accumulation of knowledge (like how to get things done by taking shortcuts) and my acceptance of life and all of its challenges”.
(Conversation with John, Bessie's son, January 2011)
… but in ending this interview David can’t resist telling me that he really isn’t finished yet and there will be more to report over the coming years!
Conversation with David
Dad was born on 1st April, 1936 (April Fool’s Day). This almost certainly set the stage for all that followed.
Dad's father was a grazier in central NSW. His mother was a ‘Bush Nurse’ – originally from northern England
At the age of 5, David was ‘deposited’ into a boarding school, compliments of good people and fortunate associations, and he remained institutionalised for the rest of his school years. It is with a hint of sadness that we discuss this time – he was evacuated from one Boarding school suffering from appendicitis and malnutrition and was moved to yet another institution that was just as lonely for a 6-7 year old as the one before … and there are many other stories about this time but I could not get him to talk much about those years. He simply waves away these hard, lonely and isolating years as a time for ‘character building’ – as he says it was his time to learn about life’s realities and survival. He says he appreciated that time, though he notes his ‘conditioning’ may not have been necessary if life had been a little kinder.
During these years, the country changed. It offers an historical outline of those war years and times in rural (central) NSW. His hometown of Cowra was a military town and there was an Army Camp and a Prisoner of War Camp sited there. There was also a small arms factory. At one time David’s mother was the Attending Nursing Sister at the Ammunition Factory, and post war, she was a nursing sister at the army camp. By the end of the war the army camp had been converted to a Migrant Camp. David never forgot the images of European war refugees arriving in town, with pitiful bags of possessions, and sadly vacant faces.
He recalls the Military Driver Training that went on down at the end of his street – at the base of Billy Goat Hill. The trainees were driving Blitz Wagons (trucks and ambulances), and they were expected to attempt a rather nasty hill climb, up a hill which was not only scarred and rutted, steep and unsealed, it was also paved with greasy red clay. There were many entertaining occasions and moments as drivers failed miserably to control vehicles on the greasy red clay – provided hours of entertainment for the local kids watching the antics.
He remembers attending the POW camp entrance, compliments of an Army Officer who was billeted with a neighbouring family. He clearly remembers the two very separate sections of the POW camp, one of which housed Italian POWs, and the other which housed Japanese POWs. This was the site of the very infamous ‘Breakout’ by the Japanese POWs in which hundreds died. David remembers the outbreak and remembers huddling in a bedroom with his mother and siblings where she bravely intended to protect them with nothing more than a golf-club! David recalls finding a crudely fashioned knife a number of years after the outbreak – it was a shaped aluminium blade with a roughly corded leather handle. He believes this item was associated with that infamous breakout. There is now a commemorative cemetery for those who died at that time, together with others - from both sides.
Pre-War each house in Cowra had a slit trench as well as every school in the area. These trenches were usually full of wet red clay - and spiders, at least in the never used, but more protected, home slits.
He remembers being late for school on a regular basis because they used to follow the truck transporting the Italian POWs to their workplace at the Edgell’s “Country Gardens
About that time, he was sent off to boarding school, and he recalls the ‘celebrations’ when the war ended. Unfortunately, for those living in remote Boarding schools this meant attending the local railway siding in a tiny country town, to welcome a single local ‘digger’ back from the war! The celebrations may have been ordinary but at least the war was over!
Life continued, as life does, and David suggests that after a pretty rocky start, and in retrospect, he has much to be grateful for. He still debates as to whether his life became what it was because of, or in spite of, the first 21 unfortunate years of his life.
He had only pleasant memories for the majority of his years at boarding school which he attributes to being able to occupy himself with any type of sport that was going. He claims to have been quite the all-round sportsman in his day.
At the age of 33 David married and had 3 ‘good kids’ – his words not mine! One represented her country in a team sport at four Olympics and became a professional softballer based mainly in Japan
David looks back in review of his own experiences. He has travelled extensively to all corners of the Australian continent but his favourite area, which he visits regularly even now, is the outback and remote inner regions of this great land. He says when he is there his ‘inner bushie’ feels right at home. He has also travelled abroad and tells of many adventures and wonder he came across during his trip to London and Paris Paris
David fondly explains that the last digger wounded in the Vietnam War worked for him. This poor fellow had stepped on a land mine, and suffered much – in many ways. It would never be ‘over’ for him.
David has flown a Tiger Moth aeroplane – which almost ended in tragedy. His first solo landing didn’t ‘work’ but thankfully he was able to recover, and to go around again – buying himself some time to try and figure out what it was he didn’t know about landing an aircraft! He finally pulled the landing off. He claims that this experience gave him ‘nerves of steel’ and an attitude which served him well for the rest of his life.
There is so much to tell about a man who has lived such a full life. He has recently written biographies of his Mother’s and his Father’s lives. These were an eye-opening read for the rest of the family as we knew little about them or their respective journeys – the Cowra born Grazier and the English Bush nurse. David also took the time to write biographies for his two sisters, Janet and Judith who have both passed away. They were all impacted by the early death of their father and the long term Boarding School experience – but they were both characters in their own right and made the most of the hand that was dealt them. David has one surviving brother, Michael. Michael never knew his father, so David was able to provide Mick with some details of his father’s life and a glimpse at what life was like for all them back before their father died. Mick doesn’t say much – David seems to be the only one to get him to talk!
Now in his 75th year, David claims to have solved most of life’s basic mysteries, and has concluded that there is no such thing as ‘failure’. In his mind, the condition simply does not exist, and insists that the word should be replaced with the word ‘alternatives’.
Now in his 75th year, David claims to have solved most of life’s basic mysteries, and has concluded that there is no such thing as ‘failure’. In his mind, the condition simply does not exist, and insists that the word should be replaced with the word ‘alternatives’.
David totally loves Mother Nature, and believes her to be totally wondrous, totally powerful, totally controlling, and totally merciless – and that there is nothing else.
(Conversation with Nicole, David's daughter, March 2011)