Family History 1.135

Gaze History:

NSG Memoir

Church and the young family 

1948 was the year of the Poliomyelitis epidemic, when schools were closed for the first ten weeks of the school year and the children did their lessons at home by correspondence. 

Close on the heels of that episode came another change in circumstances.  Fred became ill with what seemed like a cold in April.  Before long it had developed into pneumonia and after about one week’s illness he died, vowing he could see the gates of Heaven opening for him. The funeral was a large one, and held in the Bellevue Road home. Obituaries in the New Zealand Herald and the New Zealand Baptist recounted his contributions to the community and the church. 

This left Doris alone to care for her invalid mother.  Noel became increasingly worried about the burden that was falling on his sister. Regular visits could do little to relieve her.  During his sixth form year in 1949, Franklin stayed one night a week with his grandmother and aunt, and sat with Julia while Doris went out to Bible Class at Shackleton Road Church, her one outing for herself in the week. Eventually in the Summer of that year the decision was taken to sell the property at Papatoetoe and move to somewhere closer to Bellevue Road. 

Meantime Olwyn had completed her primary school education at Papatoetoe School.  For the last year or two, Noel had been an elected member and Treasurer of the school committee. Olwyn was entrusted with messages backwards and forwards between the Principal and Treasurer.  In those days Paptoetoe School was the largest primary school in New Zealand, until the opening of Papatoetoe East School around 1951. 

Noel and Mary still held the idea from Olwyn’s early years that she was not as strong as other children.  They tried to find a comfortable environment for her to do her secondary years.  They decided in the end to send her as a day pupil to St Cuthbert’s College in Epsom. Olwyn did not exactly enjoy being with fellow-students who she regarded as from more affluent backgrounds than herself.  Nevertheless she completed her schooling at St Cuth’s. 

And Stuart was progressing through the lower classes at Papatoetoe primary school, walking the mile or so each way to and from school as the others had done since 1942. 

Noel was still keeping a close eye on his remaining aunt, Lizzie, in Franklin Road. She was becoming increasingly frail. One day in 1947 she slipped and fell, breaking her arm.  Once she had been patched up at the hospital, Noel brought her home and she stayed with the family at Papatoetoe until her arm was better and she was able to return to her own house. 

The new car proved a boon for travel along the increasingly busy Great South Road. Noel applied for a big increase in petrol, and when the relaxed bureaucrats of the post-war era granted his request, he had to travel to work each day in the car to justify it.  That was his story, anyway. From the beginning of 1948, once the polio epidemic was out of the way, Noel started to teach Franklin to drive.  To practise his driving, Noel took his son with him to town in the morning through the chaotic traffic heading north, and Franklin would travel home on the train in the afternoon. At this time the first section of the Southern Motorway, from Penrose to Mt Wellington Highway, was being constructed.