Granny Carter

Granny (right) with Polly Harely (sister) and Jim Orr (brother)

Granny Carter was always old – at least as far as I remember. She died in 1967, a few months after I started at Wagga Wagga. I still remember the day I received the letter from Mum telling me of her death. Mum had included some information – probably a newspaper clipping – about her funeral that made reference to the Bible reading on the day. I did have a Bible, not that I read it much in those days, and Steve Butler suggested I get it out and read the passage. Steve and a few other blokes sat around the room as I read it out. While this was happening someone else came into the room, saw what was going on, and accused us of being Bible bashers but as soon as someone explained what was going on he sat quietly with the rest of them. Granny died at the age of 96 which means she was born in 1871.

My memory is always of Granny and Aunty Ethel, for from my earliest days they always lived together. Among my earliest memories are those of a trip I did with Nana and Pa Marsh in the Austin A40 to spend a night or two with Granny and Aunt Ethel on their farm at Seelands, outside Grafton. I must have been three or four at the time. From their house you could see the Clarence River and the railway line ran through their farm. Now, when I look Seelands up on ‘whereis.com’ it shows up on the opposite side of the river to the railway line but possibly Seelands refers to the area on both sides of the river.

I don’t know when they moved to Grafton, but that is where they both lived for most of the time I knew them. From their house we could look over a creek to see the prisoners in Grafton gaol working in the prison gardens.

They were both ‘proper’ ladies, always well dressed, sat straight, and Aunty Ethel was quite particular about the way the house was kept. Mum and Dad made it quite clear before we ever visited that we were expected to be on our best behaviour for the occasion. Whenever we began to get a little restless we were allowed to go out into the garden to work off some excess energy.

Granny and Ethel would often spend time with Nana and Pa, especially at Christmas. One memory of Granny is that of her on hands and knees scrubbing Nana’s veranda. This memory was of Granny well into her eighties. Another is of her sitting on a platform that had been made for Nana to allow her to reach the rotary clothes line Dad had made for her. Nana was rather short as a result of a deformity she had caused by a childhood illness. Granny held a switch in her hand and David and I would try to run in close to Granny and out again without being tagged by the switch. She remained physically active until the last couple of years of her life and retained her full mental abilities until the end.

Granny with Ethel, Roy and Lucy.

Granny was born Eliza Orr, the daughter of William who had emigrated from Canada. The story is that William was the engineer on the first steam ship that sailed into Sydney Harbour but I am not sure that this tale would stand up to close historical scrutiny. It seems one day William had a little too much to drink and spent the night as a guest of the local policeman. While enjoying the policeman’s hospitality he urinated on the officer through the bars of his cell. Which may explain why he spent some time in Fiji.

Granny spent some of her childhood in Fiji where William managed a sugar can plantation. Another unsubstantiated piece of the family history is that William took the first horses to Fiji. This is something Dad told me that he had heard but he was not sure if it were true.

Granny married William Davis and they had three children; Roy, Ethel and Lucy. Roy served with the army in France in World War 1 where he was gassed and wounded. After the war he married Alma McLennan, Pa Marsh’s cousin. They had one daughter, Maree (may not be spelt correctly) who served in the WRAAF in World War two and later married Don Day who also served in the RAAF. Don became a minister in the Wran Government of NSW. Ethel married a McNeil. They had no children and her husband died before I was born. Lucy was my Dad’s mother.

William died before Lucy was born and Granny determined she would not marry again until her children were raised. Initially she lived in a shack with a dirt floor on a farm owned by her brother-in-law, Lavendar Davis (known as Lav). Years later, after my grandparents married, they bought the neighbouring 80 acre farm. To earn a little money Granny walked the 8 to 10 kilometres into Maclean carrying eggs, chickens and other produce to sell.

She eventually married Grandfather Carter who died before I was born. The Carters owned a 40 acre farm that was diagonally across the road from my grandparents. When Mum and Dad married they took over this farm and I grew up in the house that my great grandmother had lived in. Dad was to eventually buy this farm from Granny. It had been left to him in Grandfather Carter’s will on condition that he buy it from Granny at a price that was set at the time the will was written – quite a favourable price when Dad finally bought it.

The story is told that when one of her nieces – a Davis girl – wore a two-piece swimsuit that showed the smallest amount of midriff Granny called her a hussy.  She was a staunch Methodist but according to my Uncle Stan – who married Dad’s sister Aileen – would enjoy the occasional shandy. Her faith remained strong throughout her life and her Bible was constantly beside her during the final years of her life when she suffered a succession of illnesses.

Granny lived by this prayer that I believe was in her Bible when she died.

‘My Lord walks with me today, and His power is in every single thing I do. Today His glorious Presence will be at my right hand. As I take hold of my tasks there will be added strength within me. As I face perplexities there will be unexpected solutions. As I face my relationships with others, there will be a love beyond my own, making those relationships sweet and beautiful. Nothing will meet me today that He will not be in and together we will go through it. His glorious Presence will be at my right hand.’

Granny was a wonderfully kind lady who was greatly loved by her family. She overcame hardship, as did many of her generation, to create a better world for her family. A true pioneer, a positive role model, a woman of faith.