Short story blog
This story is a tribute to the late Elizabeth Annie (“Betty”) Anderson, of Rockhampton. Betty died on 25 February 2020, aged 100 years 6 months. I met Betty when I was a child. She was a long-standing family friend. My mother Evelyn and Betty had known each other since their late teens. My husband, Tony, […] Read more…
The year 1871 began on a sorrowful note. Holiday festivities came to an abrupt end when it became known on Monday 2 January that His Excellency, Colonel Blackall, Governor of Queensland, had died. With this news a universal gloom settled on the entire population of the fledgling colony. Colonel Samuel Wensley Blackall had been in […] Read more…
During a visit to the Mount Morgan Cemetery in 2017 I came across the grave of EMMETT BEAUMONT McSWEENEY, an infant who died in 1921. At the time I was looking for the grave of my aunt THYRA GRACE BEAUMONT, also an infant, who died in 1920 and who was also buried there (read A […] Read more…
This story is an Anzac Day tribute to my late mother, Evelyn Proposch (nee Beaumont), who was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) during World War II. It’s the second part of a two-part series. The first part, My mother’s years in the WAAAF (Part 1): Brisbane, which I posted on […] Read more…
In your family archives, do you have an old letter or two? I do. One is a 3-page letter dated 13 March 1952 my father wrote to my mother, brother and me. I would recognize my father’s handwriting anywhere. Seeing his handwriting and reading the words and expressions he used in this letter makes me […] Read more…
This story is a tribute to my father, Petar Salečić (also known as Peter Salecich), who was born in a small Croatian village on this day, October 16, 99 years ago. It’s an abridged version of the eulogy I delivered at his funeral service that was held in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia), on April 17, 2009. […] Read more…
In 1958, at 36 years of age, Anđelka Salečić (nee Tomašić) left her European homeland and all that was familiar to her to make a new life for herself and her family in Australia. For the next 30 years she called Australia home. A New Australian, she came to love her adopted land, and never […] Read more…
The years my mother Evelyn served in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) during World War II were her most formative. They shaped the strong, determined, loving and capable person I came to know. Evelyn’s time in the WAAAF was arguably the most exciting, rich and educative chapter of her young life. I came […] Read more…
I never knew my aunt, my mother’s sister. She died long before I was born. There are no photographs of her, so I can only imagine what she looked like. But I do have something that belonged to her. It’s a lock of hair. A carefully preserved lock of hair, fastened with a tiny silk […] Read more…
Do you find it difficult to tell your father that you love him? Do you want to tell him while there is still time? This was my problem, 19 years ago. My father was in his late 70s and terminally ill. I suspected he had only months to live. I wanted to tell him how […] Read more…
Willis. It’s not his given name. It’s a name Wei-Chih Lin chose for himself. At University, his English teacher wanted all students to have an English name. Wei-Chih searched the internet and a book of English names for one beginning with “W” because his Chinese name begins with “W”. He found “William”, which means “strong, […] Read more…
Recently, I posted on Facebook a photograph of my great-grandparents’ house on their property Mons, Rannes, Central Queensland. To my surprise, the photograph generated a huge response, especially when I posted it on Vintage Queensland and Central Queensland Old Pictures and Yarns Facebook pages. As a result, I decided to tell this story of […] Read more…
On Thursday my husband and I attended a funeral. It was the funeral of Brian Edwin Sara, friend, much-loved brother in the Lord and member of St Andrew’s Anglican Church South Brisbane. The church was packed, as family members, parishioners, friends and representatives of the scouting movement and Brian’s tenpin bowling club gathered to honour […] Read more…
Yesterday afternoon Tony and I were privileged to attend Alwyn and Fay Neuendorf’s 60th wedding anniversary celebration. Alwyn and Fay were married at Balimo in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea on October 4, 1956. The afternoon’s proceedings included introduction of family and special guests, afternoon tea, slideshow, special greetings, cutting the cake, hymn-singing, […] Read more…
I met Ben when he was 92 years old. I never had the pleasure of meeting Elsie. My husband Tony met Ben and his wife Elsie four years earlier, when Ben was 88 and Elsie 97. It was soon after Tony was appointed by St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Rockhampton as Assistant to the Minister. Ben […] Read more…
