Dear Mum and Dad
As summer approaches here in W.A. we are being warned that we could have a very dangerous bushfire season. We had a very dry winter and therefore it was apparently impossible do to all the prescribed burning required to make the bush safe.
We can only hope that there won't be the devastating fires of last season when so many properties were lost, although fortunately no loss of lives.
So many people had to try and rebuild their lives and with the loss of their homes came the sadness of all the special 'things' that were lost in the fires.
This got me thinking of the loss of your farmhouse all those years ago before I was born. You had apparently been off camping on another part of the farm overnight only to return home the next day to find your home completely gutted by fire. One can only imagine the shock you must have felt.
All your precious things you had brought with you from England had gone, although strangely enough one item did survive...Dad's MBE medal minus the ribbon of course. We often wondered what that medal was made of as gold and silver had melted in the fire with all other metals. I often think we should have tried to find out what the metal was but, like so many things, one never gets around to finding out. I know Len had the medal when you went Dad and I am not sure who has it now. Perhaps I should as Wendy or Penny if they know what happened to it.
I know all Dad's football medals and newspaper cuttings from when he played for Tottenham Hotspurs in London in the early 1900s were lost and how I would have loved to see them and read the articles about him. Mum you always said he was a champion soccer player and loved to talk about him playing.
It also means that nothing of your past was there for me to see or touch and although they were only material things they were part of both of you and I would have cherished them so much.
You were amazing Mum how you rebuilt a temporary house out of saplings etc and beds made with wheat bags and all that. You both survived and made good and were able to eventually adopt me a few years later and I am so glad you did. The main thing I guess was I had both of you for a number of years, so perhaps nothing else really mattered.
Love you both so much still
Your own daughter xxxx
Another lovely post leaving me a tad misty in the eyes. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks EC. Yes I always feel a bit teary when I think of my folks returning to find all was gone. It always affects me when I hear of people losing all their personal possession to fire. This was not in a bushfire but happened 'accidentally' by a careless teenager (Dad's son) who had not closed the doors on the wood stove when he lit the fire in the morning. At least that is what the aboriginal tracker determined had happened and there seems there could be no other explanation. Said son shot through and apparently hotfooted to parts unknown and I am not entirely sure what happened after that although of course eventually the 3 were reunited and whether the incident was ever mentioned I cannot say.
ReplyDelete