A Family Treasure Trove

In January 1956 my Mum & Dad went for a working holiday for a year to the U.K. Growing up us kids we would always here about their many adventures, as well as often having slide nights to see all the pictures they had taken of their trip. We always loved to hear about their travels, and to see their photos.

Mum & Dad had written many letters to the family back home in Australia, while I never saw them over the years, Dad would mention them every now and again. Once Mum passed away in 1981, we thought that my "EVIL" stepfather had got rid of them, like he had done with alot of Mum's other personal things.

Late last year I decided to have a big clean out, and I went through a particular box that I had always carried around with me to wherever I was living, without ever opening it. I had been taking this box everywhere with me since I moved out of home in 1981!! To my total amazement, I found in the box all of the letters that they had written - there was 112 of them!!!! And Mum being the writer that she was, they were all at least 3 or more pages long, some were even 12 pages long!! Mum was never short of words!!!!

I was so excited when I found them, that I had to read them all right away - It felt like Mum had walked into the room herself, sat down beside me, and was telling me the story of their trip herself. Mum always had a great way with words, especially in her writing.

It felt like I had opened up a time capsule, and was experiencing life back in 1956. I then of course made copies of them for myself and the rest of the family, and passed the original letters back to Dad. Even he was amazed to read them, because some of them he hadn't known Mum had written.

This Photo Is Of Mum In Adelaide

This Photo Is Of Mum & Dad On The Ship To England
(They Look So Young And Carefree)

This Photo Is Of Buckingham Palace
(Check Out The Cars !!!)

This Photo Is Of Their Little Black Morris Van

They Travelled In Around The U.K.

Then a couple of weeks ago out of the blue, I heard from one of My Aunty's letting me know that she had old Home Movie footage of Mum, Dad and the family from back in the 1950s, as well as alot of photos of Mum's family dating back to the 1800s !!!! I was so thrilled to hear from her, and she kindly sent me copies of everything she had.

Of course watching the old Home Movies, I had lots of laughs as well as many tears. It was so weird to actually see movie footage of Mum & Dad looking so young, happy and carefree, and I could also see alot of Mum in myself. Over the years I have often been told I look like my Mum, and now I can see why after watching the Old Home Movies. When my sweet daughter "Kimberley" watched it at first she thought it was actually me, until I let her know it was Mum. Her precious comment was "Now I can see where you get your silliness from"!

Kimberley is often "Very Serious", (Its almost as if she is the adult in the house). I soon advised her that "My Silliness" comes from "BOTH" sides of my family, and that she too has it in her "GENES" !!!! Both from me and my family as well as her Dad's side.... "Poor Kimberley"....