MORE than eight decades of memories hang on the walls of Margaret Williamson’s
room at the Alcheringa Hostel.
“As you can see my room is my home,” she
says.
Ms Williamson is especially fond of a collage of her life given to her
by her son, and a painting drawn by her three-year-old great-granddaughter.
She is a proud grandmother of nine and a great-grandmother of four, the
youngest of which is just weeks old.
Little Andrew, or Andy, has been born
into a very different world from the one she grew up in.
Born and bred in
Swan Hill, Ms Williamson used to ride her bike two miles to the post office
every day.
After completing her merit at St Mary’s School she undertook a
commercial course in shorthand, typing and bookkeeping.
With World War 2 in
full swing by the time she finished, Ms Williamson stayed on at home to help her
mum run the small farm they owned in the district.
The property had started
as an orange orchard, but the salt in the ground killed all the trees and the
family turned to mixed farming with cows, sheep, and pigs.
Together with her
mother and two sisters she helped run the farm, which sold cream to the butter
factory on Curlewis Street, now the Swan Hill and District Funerals building.
It was at the end of the war that the then 20-year-old seized her chance to
leave Swan Hill.
For more of this story, see Wednesday’s Guardian (May 8).
