My Mother---My Self Part Two
Without Prejudice
My mum, Natalie was not a touchy freely Mum, ever. Maybe more with Helen my younger sister, who was born when Mum was 42. She wasnt happy being pregnant at that age, saw it as somehow shameful. But with us older kids, ( I was 14 when Helen was born ) she just expected the best and certainly received it from us, ten fold.
Above me was Ian Lachlan, who was a regular soldier and eventually served in Vietnam, born 1945, James Stuart, born 1946, then Jacqueline Anne, born 1948, George Ernest, born 1950 and me, Janette Lucille born 1952. We emigrated as a family from Scotland when I was 2. David Alistair was born in Australia in 1956. We were still in the Hostel then in Adelaide.
In 1957 when I was 5 Jamie and his best friend were killed in a tragic sand cave in in Port Augusta. It was devastating and Mum had the first of many nervous breakdowns then. She was hospitalised and us kids went to live with a school teacher friend of Mum and Dads for three months in the Adelaide Hills. The lady would smack me for being rebellious and Mum went berserk when her and Dad came to pick us up.
I had never been smacked in my life and Mum and Dad were livid and that lady who we had to call Aunty Peggy was no longer a friend of theirs. We ended up having to go back to school for a time in Port Augusta, a miserable time as I recall. I started to reject boys at that age and I can't help but think its tied up with the death of my brother, James, who was just 11 when he died.
I know a boy used to follow me home from school and I literally would tell him to go away and was rude about it. I told him he gave me a headache.
My mum, Natalie was not a touchy freely Mum, ever. Maybe more with Helen my younger sister, who was born when Mum was 42. She wasnt happy being pregnant at that age, saw it as somehow shameful. But with us older kids, ( I was 14 when Helen was born ) she just expected the best and certainly received it from us, ten fold.
Above me was Ian Lachlan, who was a regular soldier and eventually served in Vietnam, born 1945, James Stuart, born 1946, then Jacqueline Anne, born 1948, George Ernest, born 1950 and me, Janette Lucille born 1952. We emigrated as a family from Scotland when I was 2. David Alistair was born in Australia in 1956. We were still in the Hostel then in Adelaide.
In 1957 when I was 5 Jamie and his best friend were killed in a tragic sand cave in in Port Augusta. It was devastating and Mum had the first of many nervous breakdowns then. She was hospitalised and us kids went to live with a school teacher friend of Mum and Dads for three months in the Adelaide Hills. The lady would smack me for being rebellious and Mum went berserk when her and Dad came to pick us up.
I had never been smacked in my life and Mum and Dad were livid and that lady who we had to call Aunty Peggy was no longer a friend of theirs. We ended up having to go back to school for a time in Port Augusta, a miserable time as I recall. I started to reject boys at that age and I can't help but think its tied up with the death of my brother, James, who was just 11 when he died.
I know a boy used to follow me home from school and I literally would tell him to go away and was rude about it. I told him he gave me a headache.
