Shine - Anglican Retirement Villages
Shine - Anglican Retirement Villages
Shine - Anglican Retirement Villages
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one Minute with<br />
gWEnEtH Bott<br />
goWRiE ViLLAgE goRdon<br />
Photo ALEx CRAig<br />
My earliest memory is…<br />
the night before my 4th<br />
birthday. My parents were<br />
decorating above my bed as i<br />
slept. A balloon fell, hit my nose<br />
and woke me up. i have never<br />
forgotten that.<br />
If I had any regret it would be…<br />
that my boyfriend, Bill, was killed<br />
during the war. He was in the<br />
Air force and flew in England.<br />
they were in a raid, and two<br />
Lancasters crashed. He is buried<br />
in France.<br />
When World War II ended…<br />
i was in Sydney but i don’t<br />
remember much about that<br />
day—i did not dwell on it<br />
because i knew that Bill was<br />
not coming back, even though<br />
he was posted as Missing and<br />
his mother always believed he<br />
would return.<br />
When I was young I wanted to<br />
be… i don’t think i wanted to be<br />
anything! After the war i was<br />
very unhappy. i thought i would<br />
like to go to England as my dad<br />
had told me so much about it<br />
after being there during the First<br />
World War. i got a wonderful job<br />
there doing secretarial work.<br />
In the holidays…<br />
my mother and i used to go to<br />
Singleton, where she and dad<br />
came from.<br />
The invention that has had<br />
the most impact in my life… is<br />
the television—there’s always<br />
something to look at.<br />
In my lifetime something that<br />
has disappeared…<br />
is the typewriter. i did a lot of<br />
typing and used to love it.<br />
The coldest I have ever felt…<br />
is when i first went to England<br />
to work. i had a room in a funny<br />
little flat with no heating. i<br />
warmed up in my landlady’s little<br />
sitting room—she had the one<br />
and only fire.<br />
shine 25
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