My Clan

Lynette S. Price

Description

This book is about a real family and their issues spanning five generations. The trials and tribulations and the comraderie they share through it all.
This book gives the reader an insight into each member of a large household - sixteen people in all. The grandmother, the parents and their nine children, an aunt, uncle and cousin and a gay boarder. It spans five generations and shows what life was like for people in the early part of the 20th century. The grandmother, born in 1894, saw two world wars and the subsequent depressions and lost family in WWI. It shows how the grandmother was in a difficult marriage and ultimately got divorced in 1920's and life as a sole parent during that time. The father and the uncle were both in the army in WWII and gives a little insight into what they went through. It tells of school days in catholic schools and the abuse suffered there by the author and her siblings. The author tells about her life as being a victim/survivor of domestic violence and speaks of her depression. Each member of the family is unique and their stories are very real. It also shows a lot of love and support for each other and shows how multiple strong personalities can all live together. In this book you will see how my grandmother, born in 1894, came to be disowned by her father in 1915. How my mother became a state ward and the physical and mental abuse she suffered in the 1930's. Although in this book you will see incidences of bullying, abandonment, drug abuse and many other issues, you will also see that, for the most part, how each one has come through it all in this very functional dysfunctional family.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Biography
• Catholic school
• Bullies
• Forgiveness
• Depression
• Family
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press AU
• Date de parution: 12 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781982295615
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

My Clan
 
A Functional, Often Dysfunctional Family
 
 
 
 
By Lynette S. Price
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Lynette S. Price.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Balboa Press
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com.au
AU TFN: 1 800 844 925 (Toll Free inside Australia)
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9560-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9561-5 (e)
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 09/14/2022

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY three sons – Robert, Adam and Scott – who have been the light of my life and more often than they know, my only reasons to keep on going. I may have given them life, but they gave me a reason to live.
These are my personal memories, along with memories from each of my siblings about their lives, and my hope is that our children and future generations will enjoy reading this and finding out about their heritage and how life was for all those who came before them. Everything is based in fact – it’s not a fairy tale – so some things may or may not be upsetting to read. The hope is that as you read this, you will see that our family was made up of real people, who had to deal with real problems - loss of loved ones, conflicts, resolution of conflicts, bullying, health issues, financial problems, domestic violence, depression and other issues that many families face in one way or another.
I wish to thank my loving sister, Rose, who has always been there for me. Also, my brother Michael (who reminded me to keep it real), and sisters Julie, Charmaine and Jeanette, all of whom shared their stories with me for this book. I must also thank Carla’s youngest son, for enhancing some of the old photos which will, hopefully, make this book a more memorable experience.
A special “thank you” must go to my dear friend, Michele, who painstakingly read and edited this book for me, making it more readable and, hopefully, more enjoyable.
I also want to thank my niece, Kerry, for all her work on our family tree and without whom some of the facts in this book would only be family lore and guess-work.
Finally, I wish to thank my husband, Peter, who was very patient with me whilst I was writing this book, and who was my sounding board for listening to the changes and inclusions to this book that I felt necessary.
This story spans six generations and I am very proud to be able to present my family to anyone who cares to get to know them – even a little!
It’s very hard to know where to begin – there is so much to tell. So far, it has taken me quite a long time to get to do this, but as this is for my children and all my siblings’ children, and their children and their children’s children, I feel passionate about completing this for them all.
I guess one of my earliest recollections is, as a child of about four years of age, one day at pre-school (or kindergarten as it was called then). Marlene (my sister - who was only thirteen months older than me) and I had to go to kindergarten together, because Marlene had serious problems with her eyes and her doctor told Mum it would be good for her, so I went with her for company. I remember I was playing with some blocks and colouring in. Marlene was building a block tower and was getting bullied by a boy who knocked her tower over, so I went over to him and pushed him over. Of course, I got into trouble, but he didn’t bully my sister any more after that. When our mother came to collect us and was told about the incident, she roused at me a little in front of the teacher, but after we left she told me (tongue in cheek) I was a good girl for sticking up for my sister, but pushing and hitting were bad things to do to other people and there were other ways to resolve disputes that did not involve physical violence. (Of course, all of this was in “four year old” language.)
Now, how many of you have an incident just like that one in your life – getting into trouble for protecting a brother or sister, or a friend, from some bully?
You know, it’s funny really, but when I was ten years old I once again got into trouble for protecting the same sister from the neighbourhood “tuffies”. Marlene had gone down to the corner shop, which was just down the street from our house. I was on our front verandah with Mum when I looked towards the shop and saw those bullies standing in a circle around her and pushing my sister around and calling her names like four-eyes, goggle-eyes, cock-eyes, etc. because she wore glasses. Well, I jumped over the verandah railing and bolted down there before Mum could stop me. Now all these kids were quite a bit bigger than me, but somehow I laid into them and even broke one kid’s nose (Lord knows how, but I did) and then they started to back away. I thought it was because I laid into them, when in fact it was because they saw my Mum coming down the street behind me and had backed off.
Anyway, after the dust settled, I got into trouble again, of course, because the kid’s mother came to see Mum to complain and threaten me with the police. Talk about cheeky, but I told that lady I would break her nose too! My mother sent me straight to my room where I had to think about other ways to calm threatening situations, rather than being so aggressive in protecting my sister.
For all our years growing up in that same neighbourhood, we had to – from time to time – contend with those “bullies”. But we weren’t the only family they picked on. They also gave one other family hell. They were a family of five girls and we were a family of seven girls and two boys. Although my eldest brother was ten years older than me, eight of us had been born within twelve years, and we were best friends with the other children, who were similar ages to us.
I wasn’t the first born, but always seemed to be the one to have the responsibility of the younger ones. My older sister, Marlene, had some very serious health issues as a child and I must admit I’ve always been a bit of an organiser, so this never worried me. (We actually had a lot of fun and one time I even tried to organise five of us kids into a singing group. A failed project that was!!) Marlene had Pink’s Disease as a baby and also developed Rheumatic Fever when very young. Also, Mum had German Measles when pregnant with Marlene and, as a consequence, Marlene’s eyesight was impaired and, as mentioned before, she had to wear quite thick glasses – even as a child. Sadly, back then there wasn’t any pre-screening for diseases like Rubella!!
When there was a long weekend, we older girls and Michael were allowed to stay up late and watch “horror” films with Deadly Ernest and Elvira (which we would now class more as comedies) about vampires, werewolves, and the like and we thoroughly enjoyed them. The younger kids were sent to bed at normal time and not allowed to stay up and watch with us in case they had nightmares.
When one of us got chicken pox, four others came down with it too. Our lounge room looked like a hospital ward, with each of the five of us lying on a mattress with blankets and lots and lots of calamine lotion all over us. This saved Mum from running up and down the stairs all day.
All of us girls shared this one lovely doll, which was made of a very hard, plastic-type material and stood about three feet tall. Her lips were parted just a little and she had a lovely smile. We were only little and whenever one of us was sick and had to stay in bed, we got to have Susie to ourselves for that time. We loved her and used to feed her too – mostly Peck’s Paste sandwiches – but pretty much whatever we were eating. Can you imagine what that would have ended up smelling like…..fermented bread and Peck’s Paste and other assorted treats – NOT pleasant! Mum eventually took her to the Doll Hospital and had her cleaned out and we did not feed her any more after that….well nothing smelly anyway!!
As a child growing up, my family was the most important thing to me, and there was always something going on. I remember when my cousin, Maria, got married, there were fifty-three people on the guest list before she even started inviting any friends. That’s a big family and at the centre of it was my Nanna, who was our family’s matriach!!
My grandmother, Mary Gertrude Silva (born in November, 1894), was one heck of a lady. As I said, she was the family’s matriarch And she was an incredibly