So I am the youngest mokopuna (grandchild) on my fathers side, by the time I arrived both my father's parents had passed passed away, so I suppose this blog is about me reaching back into the past and taking a walk back down memory lane. Over the years I have heard manys stories about them both and even though I don't have my own memories of them, I never really felt distant from them as I had the privledge to be brought up in the same area they both grew up, lived and had children in.
Our community is literally, a tightknit community, my cousin was the principal of the local school, my mother on the board, a few of the teachers were my cousins and I was in the same class as a couple of my nieces and nephews, they to me were truly golden years, so really there are so many stories to tell.
My grandmother, who we all call Mama was like I said a very particular woman, the silent moto my cousins and I joke about at times was, "as long as it all looks fantastic on the outside, who cares about what happens behind closed doors". Every photo of Mama I have seen, was always staged photos, she would always look very classy and she made sure Papa looked just as good, but like all people of those times, they dressed to kill. This of course was something we all took on bored.
With Mama it was the bigger the better, so naturally the homestead was big and on a hill looking down into the village, two to three lounge suites could fit in the lounge, she had sets upon sets of china and crystal, china cabinets full to the brim, tons of the best linen, spectacular gardens and never a hair out of place, her children dressed the same and the local Priest was a regular visitor. Her taste was impecable for her time, but bordering on just a tad over the top.
Crown Lynn swans and pale blue hydrangeas, apparently was one of her favourite arrangements except they were White swans not Pink.
