Grandma 100
Grandma would have been 100 years old today. Born Avice O’Donoghue, she saw tremendous change in her lifetime. She died peacefully Dec 31, 2019 surrounded by family. Sparing us the worry of how she’d fare in the pandemic. She was part of the post-pandemic baby boom that followed the Spanish flu, which her father survived. She was born the year the first woman was elected in Australia, though women had been able to vote since 1894. Nearly a century would pass before a woman became the PM.
Grandma was a confidently humble woman, always quick to have a laugh. She was a highly skilled seamstress. At age 15 moved to Melbourne to work in a factory. She was married to my grandfather just before the second world war and became Avice Street. She was part of women being part of the formal workforce in unprecedented numbers in the war years. Holding greater power in society than ever before. She wasn’t interested in power and status other than looking fabulous and being well dressed. Often with clothes she made herself. Today this skill is mostly done by machines and overseas labour.
I will get the details wrong here. I didn’t know my grandmother well. What brought me into the world was facilitated by the rise of commercial air travel. It’s also what transported me away from my Australian family when my parent’s marriage ended.
Spending 25 years away meant I didn’t grow up with my grandmother and the 16 years I was back when she was still alive, I didn’t visit her as often as I could have. I regret this now. All the questions I could have asked her while she was still lucid, before dementia took her sharp mind, well, they are still questions.
A word of advice, get to know your elders, ask them what they learned, what they noticed as things changed, what words of wisdom they want to share…don’t wait.)
In the time she was alive she saw electricity introduced to homes, TV arriving in time for the Melbourne Olympics, the first Australian made car roll off the assembly line, the last public hanging. Her generation saw The White Australia policy begin and end, Medicare brought basic health care to all Australians. She’d already retired when Super was introduced. She was witness to a significant telecommunications revolution starting with phones in our homes, computers, mobiles transforming global access to information and simultaneously increased connectivity and decreased connection in communities and families. It was hard for her to fathom that when we took a video of her with our phones that the rest of the family would see it on Facebook.
What a life. So much inspiration that will live beyond her.
Happy Birthday Grandma.
Chronology with Highlights of History
1921 Avice was born
Age 2 Compulsory Voting was introduced for the Australian Electoral system.
Age 10 Sydney Harbour Bridge opened
Coming of Age during the Great Depression
Age 14 Tassie Tiger declared extinct
Age 15 started work as a seamstress in Melbourne.
Age 20 Darwin Bombed during WW2.
Age 22 married Herbert Street
Age 24 gave birth to her first child, my dad.
Age 27 First Holden built, Australian car
Age 31 Queen Elizabeth crowned
Age 35 TV introduced in time for the Melbourne Olympics
Age 40 The pill first made available to (married) women, with a 27% luxury tax (after she’d had her three children)
Age 45 The White Australia policy ended.
Age 48 The moon landing, aided by Parkes Radio Telescope in Parkes ACT
Age 50 I was born, her first grandchild. Equal Pay established legally.
Age 54 My brother born. Aboriginal Land Rights Act
Age 62 Medicare introduced for basic health care for all Australians
Age 88 Official Apology to Australian Aboriginals.
Age 90 First Female Prime Minister of Australia
Age 98 Died peacefully surrounded by love and family.
