Passing Layered Time

This is a picture of my grandmother, Sarah Higginbottom, who died a decade or so after nursing my grandfather through a grim death.

The main thing about Nanna was that she had brought up six kids through the Depression, with an errant husband who made the hard times harder. She could make something out of nothing, was an entry in the family tree, and with that many kids to feed she really did have to make something out of nothing. I was her first grandson, although there were certainly others to follow. Most of her children also had lots of children. Uncle Alan had six, for example.

She was completely uneducated and incredibly kind; an absolute whizz at crosswords her greatest sign of untapped intelligence. She had worked in Sydney for a stint, as a teenager, but most of it, during the 30s and 40s, was at Uki; at a time when these were truly isolated, picturesque, north coast dairy towns. Her first child was a stillbirth, a girl, and her second, also a girl, died of dyptheria at six months. Another one of her children was to predecease her; the one who took too many Bex powders and drank too much.

Alcohol was always to figure in that family, at least amongst the men. It was bizarre the lengths squabbling couples would go to, there in the tortured days, and her life hadn't always been easy, not with Pop, not in those days when you never left, just never.

Getting her licence in her sixties, pottering around in a tiny little Morris, Pop yabbering in her ear to watch out for this, watch out for that, testing the patience of a saint.

For a while she worked as the cleaner at our school, Newport Primary; that was in the days before menial work had gained such odour; and we were immensely proud of her; hanging around afterwards, helping, fascinated; or skipping off to the park below the school with the swings that went ever higher and higher; where dark underground stone structures at the bottom, near the trees below the swings, clung in my dreams as if they were real. They never went away, and I was always surprised, when searching in daylight, to find they weren't actually there.

All that dripping water, the wet dank stone, the dark recesses, ominous men standing at urinals; lurking; that was the sort of head I had as a kid; and she was always kind, and proud, even though when I got clever and went to university we couldn't talk politics or anything, really, it didn't matter.

When I was homeless at times, during university years, they would always put me up or give me a feed, her and Pop, although they were a long way from the city where I thought my destiny lay.

I've never been to her gave. I wish I had.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Kevin Rudd, Opposition leader looking good in the polls, is everywhere:

The Age
Howard's worplace fairness test a fake, says RuddThe Australian, Australia - 8 hours ago... to Australian Workplace Agreements from Monday is a "fake safety net with holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through," Labor leader Kevin Rudd says. ...Rudd's rise EconomistRudd, the great divider Andrew Bolt Melbourne Herald SunRudd says no guarantees for Telstra NEWS.com.auThe West Australianall 44 news articles »
The Age
Voters are big business for Rudd, tooBrisbane Times, Australia - 18 hours agoFirst, big business felt betrayed by Rudd Labor this week. Kevin Rudd spent years systematically visiting the executive suites and boardrooms of Australia ...Thunder over the workplace The AgeWe’ll give profits to workers, says Rudd The West AustralianLabor drags chain on IR Daily TelegraphThe West Australian - Brisbane Timesall 188 news articles »
Rudd's breezy responseThe Australian, Australia - 20 hours agoKEVIN Rudd faced up to the inevitable dubious jokes at FM radio station B105 in Brisbane yesterday morning. Spinning the so-called Wheel of Inappropriate ...Toilet humour fails to faze Rudd The Ageall 22 news articles »
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The Age
Rudd backs 'no mistakes' CornesAdvertiser Adelaide, Australia - 2 May 2007OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd yesterday attempted to defend Labor's recruitment of Nicole Cornes, declaring no mistakes had been made in the first days of ...Cornes no mistake, says Rudd Advertiser AdelaideTough start for Cornes camp Border MailCombet to make Canberra tilt official The AgeMelbourne Herald Sun - ABC Onlineall 10 news articles »
Soldiers in Iraq need exit plan: RuddThe Age, Australia - 3 May 2007Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has offered his sympathy to an Australian soldier injured in Iraq by a roadside bomb who has now returned home for treatment. ...
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