2019 - #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks; Week 7 Prompt: ‘Love’ — Elizabeth Walker PEARCE

#52ancestors

‘Love’

One instant that has always stuck in my mind is a story of motherly

 love.

My own mother told me about my Auntie Bessie Mackay (nee

 Elizabeth Walker Pearce) who was my father’s cousin.  (My

 1^st cousin X 1 removed)

With her first pregnancy, she delivered twins. They were both so tiny

that she was told to keep them in the kitchen, with the kettle boiling

 continuously and the doors shut. The only hope for either to survive. 

 A mammoth task – both day and night.  She did this with hope and

 love and

 along with the extended family praying for the new babies, one baby

 was able to survive.  He grew into a healthy very tall man and would

 be about 85 now, as he was born around 1934.

Auntie Bessie and her husband Uncle Willie (William Alexander

 Mackay) both had very strong Scottish accents that they never

 lost.  They went on to have three girls and another boy.  Later when

 researching, I learned that Uncle Willie had twin sisters 13 years

 younger than him - Willamina and Margaret, who were born on 04

 Apr 1909.  Only Willamina survived and she lived until 1999, dying at

 90 years of age.

Auntie Bessie was a darling and when I had my first child she came

 up and lived with us for a while helping Dad and Mum prepare the

 market garden produce for the Sydney Markets and local sales.  She

 loved my baby daughter and sang and rocked her for hours. 

 
Auntie Bessie would have to have been the most prolific knitter in our

 extended family. She had a big suitcase where she kept pre-knitted

 items. She would let me select an item for my girls when I visited her.

 
 We called her Gran Bessie, as she was just like a grandma to my

 firstborn and then the others.

I also remember that she always bicycled everywhere she

 went, including her place of work, the cafeteria at the Shepparton

 Sale Yards. Even when she was elderly, she had an exercise bike to

 ride.  She made real Scottish shortbread that we all loved.  At the

 side of their house in Drummond Rd, Shepparton was a blood plum

 tree.  How I relished those delicious dark juicy fruit - the best plums I

 have ever had.


I do have a better photo tucked away somewhere - when I find it I shall replace this little one taken in about 1954.

RIP Gran Bessie. 

 

28 Apr 1901 – 01 Feb 1994. Died age 93.