Family History 1.154

Gaze History

NSG Memoir

Olwyn continues

 

This is when I got to know my Dad and we had some great times together.  Mum wasn’t very well around 1955 so Dad took her for an overseas trip.  He sold the house and when they returned they rented a house in Woodside Road for a few months.  It was there that we hosted Mum, and Dad’s Silver Wedding (1957).

 

St Leonards Road

 

Dad busy with his legal business.  He was known to be good as chairman for committees with usually an unbiased opinion.  President of Baptist Union in 1962.  I can remember him practising for his speeches when he used to get very nervous because of the difficulty with his voice and speech.  He used to get a lot of sputum and saliva; sometimes when we were out in the car he would roll down the window and spit across the road, just to shock us.  He enjoyed his year as President as he met so many interesting people.

 

He was a good Dad to me.  I have no real unhappy memories.  We had differences of opinion, but we could usually laugh about things as he had a great sense of humour and teased me a lot.  He was much loved and a man of integrity.  When he died I thought he was old and at the right age to die, but now that I am older than he ever was…..I wonder.

 

 

Margaret Cowie (nee Bigelow), daughter of Mary’s brother and Noel’s friend, Jack:

 

 

Why did he move you round Auckland?  I remember summer holiday visits to Owairaka, Mairangi Bay, Papatoetoe, Grange Road.  One pleasant family home and then another pleasant family home.  It was a mystery to me and I realize that, accustomed to my parents' peripatetic life, I could not understand why those who could achieve stability might not choose to, at any rate where homes were concerned.

 

Father's stories of the unimaginable time before our generation existed frequently included Uncle Noel.  His tone in hindsight I would describe as combining warmth and deep respect.  This perhaps describes my impression of Dad's life-long feelings about uncle as I registered them.  Anecdotes of Mt Eden and Baptist Youth activities had specific associations of enthusiasm, engagement, dedication, fun.  How I wish I could remember specifics.  Somewhere I have a photograph of your father and mine and Jo Coop with bicycles on a bicycling holiday remembered with cheerful affection.

 

(To be continued)