How God Healed Me.  

It was a cold wet day early in April, II had just turned eleven

I went to school and the first lesson of the day was sewing; the class was held in a large room with an open fireplace. The sewing teacher told a couple of the girls to light a fire, to warm the room. When the fire had being going for a while and all the other girls were warm, I complained of still being cold.

       The teacher told me not to be silly; I started to cry and told her I felt sick, she thought I was faking.                

      When I continued to cry and shiver she told a couple of the other girls to take me home 

      I do not remember anything about getting home, but I was told, I had no sooner got in the back door than I collapsed.

      Mum sent for the doctor and he told her I had pneumonia. My Aunty Valerie came over from Georgica to help Mum look after me.

      I was very sick and after about a week, the doctor told Mum there was nothing more he could do for me, that I was in the hands of God. As he was about to leave he remembered some sample tablets he had received that morning, he gave them to Mum and told her to try them. They were sulpanilamide, I think.

      Mum gave me the tablets and I am here to tell the tale. Mum always said God had healed me.      

      I am sure it was God who had those tablets arrive at the doctors rooms that morning and that He prompted the doctor to put them in his bag and then to remember them as he was leaving our house.

     I believe that once we are in Gods hands He watches over us always.

                                    Our Camping Holiday.

One Easter we decided to go on a camping holiday to the coast. My husband our 2 children, Peter 3yrs. and Elizabeth 6mths. We left on the Thursday before Good Friday.

When we left home on the west side of the Dividing Ranges it was fine but when we reached the foothills it was raining and the further up the range we went the heavier it got.

It was the Oxley highway we were on but it was a dirt road and it became a muddy road.

When we reached the top of the Dividing Range where there was a timber mill the road was all stirred up from the big timber trucks, there were deep ruts in the road from there large wheels.

Our wheels got caught in one of these ruts and we couldnt get out, it took us to the very edge of the road. I looked out my window and could only see down, down, down could not see to the bottom is was so far down. My heart was in my mouth but the ruts took us into the centre of the road and we kept going.

When we eventually reached the coast it was still raining. We reached the camping ground and found a spot to pitch our tent and unpack.

We were tired so we had something to eat and went to bed.

Elizabeth woke through the night and when I stepped off the camp bed I stepped into water. I put my torch on a discovered we had about 6ins.of water in the tent.

I shook Bert and told him but he said fix it in the morning and turned over and went back to sleep.

I spent the next 15- 20 mins. raising everything up out of the water, then settled the baby and went back to bed.

In the morning we discovered that in the dim light we had pitched our tent over a 3ft. wide 6in deep water drain and as it was overgrown with grass and didnt have any water in it at the time we didnt notice it.

While other campers stood by laughing we had to move everything out and pull the tent down and pitch it again.

We also discovered that the road over the Ranges had been closed and we were the last vehicle to get through unaided.

It rained right up to the Monday. You may be able to imagine what it was like trying to get nappies dry,

No disposable those days.

A lot of the campers left on the Monday but we stayed till the weekend and had fine weather all the rest of the week.

The highway was still closed so we had to go home a different way.

That was only the second time we went camping and it was the last.

Something we learned about pitching tents: The first time we pitched it Bert had me standing underneath the tent holding the middle pole while he put up the outside poles. It wasnt easy holding that pole.

Then someone told us you put the outside poles up first then the middle one. Well you live and learn.

                                        Washing Day and Other Things

My parents owned the grocery store and post office in a farming community fifteen miles from closest town. It took one hour by car to drive there.

 My parents owned an Essex car, not many of the farmers owned cars most drove a horse and sulky. The car didnt have windows just canvas blinds, with Perspex in the centre that pulled down and hooked to top of door.

We had no electricity or running water.

At the back of the house there was a separate building with a bathroom and laundry.

There was a bathtub in the bathroom, not many people in that district had bathtubs.

When anyone wanted a bath, water had to be heated in big pots on fuel stove and carried to bathroom, usually all the children had a bath in same water just topped up to keep hot.

There were a couple of washtubs in laundry but the copper was outside.

On wash day water had to be carried to the tubs and to the copper, when the copper had boiled and clothes washed they had to be drained and carried to the laundry where they were rinsed.

Any clothes that had to be scrubbed where done on the scrubbing board.

Anyone under forty or maybe even fifty reading this probably doesnt know what a scrubbing board looks like.