Adelaide Frances 22/8/1901 – 11/01/2000
She was a wonderful woman, barely 5 ft tall, she was a fighter. She lived through two wars, two marriages and brought up four children virtually on her own.
One of the eldest of about 13 children, of whom five survived her (three are still alive) she was my only grandparent. However, both her parents lived well into my life – I remember them well. Great-grandma Perkins died in the early 1960s and Great-grandpa Perkins, about 1968 or 1969.
Her mother-in-law, Grandma Thomas, also lived to 1960 or thereabouts.
Between “jobs”, she led a nomadic life, moving around her four children and staying until they could no longer put up with her. When she stayed with us, she was the boss, which drove my Dad mad, and probably Mum as well, although she managed to hide it better.
She also drove her grandchildren mad to the point that we dreaded her coming to stay.
She made clothes, lots of clothes, dresses for the girls and shirts and even grey flannel school shorts for us boys. The shirts and shorts were not very good, but then, she never worked to a pattern. And she always managed to leave a couple of pins in the finished article.
She cooked. Her cakes were to die for. Fairy cakes, cream sponges.
As she grew older, she mellowed, her legs and hearing failed her. But she was still as sharp as her sewing needles. She did the crossword every day.
She attended the 80th birthday party of her younger sister in 1999, where she was reunited with all her surviving siblings, Ivy, Joyce, Tiny, Win and Len.
Christmas 1999 she spent with her daughter (my mother), me, my children and their children – five generations.
She saw in the new Millennium.
Then, having done everything that she was ever going to, she died.
I miss you, Nanna.
