15th August : In Memory of my wonderful Mum
Posted by Wanda Lach on Thursday, August 15, 2013 Under: Family
Well it's mum's birthday today. She passed away on th 13th of August, 1998. My theory was that she really didn't want to get old... she would have been 70.
Mum was always full of life. She always looked wonderful - makeup and hair beautifully done - she loved to laugh and dance and have a good time. She loved her friends dearly and was always the designated driver (because no one else had a drivers licence!).
She decided when she was in her 40's that she really wanted to drive. Dad was just an old fuddy duddy and didn't want to go anywhere - the fact that he worked as a labourer all his life and was quite a bit older was totally beside the point. So she went and got her L's and then took 12 months to finally go for her licence. Her first drving lessons were given by her young daughter, yes, me! The first time I took her down to the local school's carpark and let her drive around on the weekend. Then I got her to drive home... oh boy.... what a mistake! Coming up Constitution Hill, steep and with a lovely corner with a telegraph pole right on the bend which was a magnet it seems to my mum.... yikes! I grabbed the wheel and kept the car on the road.
When we got home I suggested, after I prised my fingers from the dash, knuckles white as....that maybe she would be better off getting lessons from a driving school...
I had memories of her very first attempt at driving though when I was very little - can't remember what car we had but it was a manual and had the gearstick on the steering column... my dad was trying to teach her to drive... she wanted to learn to drive in 1st gear first then 2nd and then 3rd... one at a time! oh my - should have remembered this!
Well, much to everyone's amazement and disbelief she gained her full licence on her first attempt and promptly bought a little Ford Escort to zip around in. Then prompty had a major car accident and wrote off the car and was very very lucky to have come away with just a bruised knee and fractured rib! The guy who rammed into her at some speed was a doctor - he hit her so hard that she ended up on the wrong side of the road facing the wrong way... she had taken just a little to long making a right-hand turn.
The introduction of round-a-bouts were definitely a mystery to my mum. She decided that the very best thing to do was give way to everybody before she entered the roundabout.... those poor motorists behind her, she really was oblivious to the fact!
Still, all her friends were so happy that they could all now go to the Polish Club or out for lunch to the local club or to the Polish church at Maryong and their dear "Adelcha' would pick them all up and drop them home.
I always had the latest in fashionable clothes - thanks to mum who was a fabulous seamstress. All I had to do was point at something I liked in the latest Women's Weekly or Woman's Day and we would go out and choose material and within a very short space of time I was wearing the latest fashion! There was little money to spare on actually buying ready-made clothes in those days!.
I remember my first pair of super shoes - burgundy patent leather, pointy toes and a gorgeous strap (flatties of course!) My best girlfriend had just got a pair and I really really wanted them too! They were worn every Sunday to church until I outgrew them. And, of course, my first pair of 'heels' at the ripe age of 14 - mum's neighbour talked her around for me! Mum thought I was much to young to be wearing heels! They were all of about 3 or 4 cms high - what a hoot!
Oh, so many wonderful memories... rest in peace my sweet mum!
And also a happy birthday to Pani Irka... my dear Godfather's wife who shared the same birthday. I'm sure that they are in heaven together laughing and dancing!
Mum was always full of life. She always looked wonderful - makeup and hair beautifully done - she loved to laugh and dance and have a good time. She loved her friends dearly and was always the designated driver (because no one else had a drivers licence!).
She decided when she was in her 40's that she really wanted to drive. Dad was just an old fuddy duddy and didn't want to go anywhere - the fact that he worked as a labourer all his life and was quite a bit older was totally beside the point. So she went and got her L's and then took 12 months to finally go for her licence. Her first drving lessons were given by her young daughter, yes, me! The first time I took her down to the local school's carpark and let her drive around on the weekend. Then I got her to drive home... oh boy.... what a mistake! Coming up Constitution Hill, steep and with a lovely corner with a telegraph pole right on the bend which was a magnet it seems to my mum.... yikes! I grabbed the wheel and kept the car on the road.
When we got home I suggested, after I prised my fingers from the dash, knuckles white as....that maybe she would be better off getting lessons from a driving school...
I had memories of her very first attempt at driving though when I was very little - can't remember what car we had but it was a manual and had the gearstick on the steering column... my dad was trying to teach her to drive... she wanted to learn to drive in 1st gear first then 2nd and then 3rd... one at a time! oh my - should have remembered this!
Well, much to everyone's amazement and disbelief she gained her full licence on her first attempt and promptly bought a little Ford Escort to zip around in. Then prompty had a major car accident and wrote off the car and was very very lucky to have come away with just a bruised knee and fractured rib! The guy who rammed into her at some speed was a doctor - he hit her so hard that she ended up on the wrong side of the road facing the wrong way... she had taken just a little to long making a right-hand turn.
The introduction of round-a-bouts were definitely a mystery to my mum. She decided that the very best thing to do was give way to everybody before she entered the roundabout.... those poor motorists behind her, she really was oblivious to the fact!
Still, all her friends were so happy that they could all now go to the Polish Club or out for lunch to the local club or to the Polish church at Maryong and their dear "Adelcha' would pick them all up and drop them home.
I always had the latest in fashionable clothes - thanks to mum who was a fabulous seamstress. All I had to do was point at something I liked in the latest Women's Weekly or Woman's Day and we would go out and choose material and within a very short space of time I was wearing the latest fashion! There was little money to spare on actually buying ready-made clothes in those days!.
I remember my first pair of super shoes - burgundy patent leather, pointy toes and a gorgeous strap (flatties of course!) My best girlfriend had just got a pair and I really really wanted them too! They were worn every Sunday to church until I outgrew them. And, of course, my first pair of 'heels' at the ripe age of 14 - mum's neighbour talked her around for me! Mum thought I was much to young to be wearing heels! They were all of about 3 or 4 cms high - what a hoot!
Oh, so many wonderful memories... rest in peace my sweet mum!
And also a happy birthday to Pani Irka... my dear Godfather's wife who shared the same birthday. I'm sure that they are in heaven together laughing and dancing!
In : Family
