My grandmother, Mary Grace Jane ‘Doll’ COGHLAN nee LEE (1881-1958) ‘handed down’ to her son, my dad, a gold locket. On the outside of the locket are the initials ‘MJL’ and on the inside are photos of a man, a lady and a baby. There are no names or dates on the locket or photos READ MORE
There’s something about shuffling off this mortal coil
One of the greatest legacies my dad gave me was a sense of humour. Unfortunately, our time together was relatively short; he died in 1974 when I was 17. However, it was long enough to instil in me a love of the ridiculous and later, a realization of it’s ability to build resilience when faced READ MORE
Curiouser and Curiouser
When I was about 10 or 11 I had a growth spurt. My arms, hands, feet and legs telescoped out of their sockets. But unlike Alice, in Alice in Wonderland, I couldn’t blame my growth on a cake labelled EAT ME. Seemingly overnight, I became one of the tallest in my grade. My arms were READ MORE
Back to the Main Drain – Cora Lynn, Vervale and Iona
My cousin, Howard, and his mum, Muriel WINTER* (nee FALLON) kindly offered to take me on a tour of the old sites of my grandparents: For Mum’s side, the WINTER family—Cora Lynn, Vervale and Iona farms, and, for Dad’s side, the COGHLAN family—Cora Lynn General Store, all situated around the Main Drain on the Koo READ MORE
An Officer and a Gentleman
Remembrance Day, 11 November 2015 David Thomas LEE was my Dad’s cousin (and for the family’s information Ron Lee’s brother). He was to be the best man at my parents’ wedding in January 1943, but he was unable to attend due to RAAF training commitments in preparation for action in WWII. On the 5th November READ MORE
What’s in a name?
Early place names in Victoria can bamboozle you. In the 1840s, my maternal great great grandfather Edward WINTER, or Eddie, as I like to call him, lived in a couple of places that required a bit of lateral thinking to find out where they were today. The place names were Lucerne and The Springs. Eddie’s READ MORE
98 today…..well, she would have been
Mum would have been 98 today. To honour her memory I’ve dedicated my first post, in my first blog, to her, Teresa Bernadette WINTER (1917-2010). The WINTER Family Mum, known as Berna, was born on the 28th October 1917 at 93 Station St., Fairfield, at the back of her father’s butcher’s shop… or so the READ MORE