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[Page 111]
Mum and I saw a lot of Beryl during the early part of 1988 and !remember Mum making tomato and onion sandwiches for Beryl. We would meet Beryl at St Vincents Hospital and plan our day from there. Once or twice we went to the Botanic Gardens, one of Mothers all time favorite places, another time we walked all over Darling Harbour and the Chinese Gardens.
By now Mum is seeing Dr Alam every two weeks and quite often her visit to Dr Alam would be planned around Beryls visit to the eye specialist. One big coincidence was that John Alam was a Delegate boy and Beryl knew his family. Small world.
Arron takes off for Japan and gives Mum another person to write to. She and Anon were great correspondents.
During the first 6 months of 1988 Mum really got into Sydney. She met regularly with her friends Dorrie, Olga and Jessica. Dorrie and Mum would share afternoon teas at Gordon. Olga and Mum would share lunches at the kiosk in the Botanic Gardens and Jessica and Mum would meet for coffee and cake at either David Jones or a small coffee lounge in Centrepoint. Weekends with Margaret, lunch with Shani, she was happy. I recall too our visits to the Rookwood Cemetery to tend the memorials of Dad and Albert and the graves of Grandfather Hawkins and Essie, Nana and Grandfather Wood and dear Uncle Albert. Mum made a special flower pot for Nanas grave, made with broken pieces of china stuck on to a terracotta pot.
We moved to Queensland in July 1988. Mum and I travelled up in one car and Alan in the other. The Reid family greeted us on arrival and we all felt instantly at home. Mum got Alan started with a vegetable garden and generally gave us all the clues about tending a garden, a garden which today gives us much pleasure. However it wasn't long before we were all back in Sydney (September) celebrating Waynes twenty-first.
Mum soon reacquainted with her old contacts on the Gold Coast. Her doctor, her friend Marj Hill and her church. Mum went to the Labrador Uniting Church each Sunday, many of the parishioners knew her from earlier years living at Anglers Paradise. Mum looked forward to her Sunday mornings at Church and especially the hymn singing. She really loved the hymns. Always beautifully dressed. wearing a hat, a splash of perfume, be it Arpege or African Violets. Mum was without a doubt the finest looking and best dressed lady in church.
Pretty soon it was around this time that Beryl and Stan moved to Cobargo and Betty and Barrie moved to Sydney. We were all on the move, and Mum would often remark. "I'm not going to travel as much next year, I'm staying put."
Come November 1988 and Stephen announced his engagement to Tammy Smith, a party was held at Merle and Rons home and it just so happened that Alans mother Hilma Rossell also attended the party as she was