Family...

I came back to Australia because my elder sister Maria, was getting married! This was to be an exciting time for her and all of the family wanted to celebrate everything with she and her fiance Milton.


The wedding was held in Nelson Bay, our hometown, and was a really big thing for all of us. Our three younger sisters were bridesmaids, carrying parasols, wearing lovely 70's frocks, and floppy hats! Because I didn't think I would be able to come back home for the wedding I wasn't in the wedding party (Maria, who as a TAA air hostess managed to get me a cheap flight home) so, I had a great time, because I got to watch all the goings on, in a fly on the wall sort of way! My sister Terina was a beautiful singer and she sang 'Ave Maria', in the service - what a singer and what a song!


After a great night of dancing and catching up with family and friends, we all got up early and went out to Williamtown airport (It was so different to how it is today!) to see the newlyweds off on their flight to the rest of the world and to the rest of their lives!!


Milton was a well respected musician and he had a band who played in most of the top Newcastle clubs and pubs as well as those of Nelson Bay and surrounding locales. Although he had been married before and had two lovely daughters, what I wanted to know was.....would he be a good husband to my beautiful sister??


Well, if a marriage was going to survive, I thought that my sister had a pretty good chance since she was a 'child bride' and he was an 'older' man! Being someone in a band, makes the people around you treat you differently and throws lots of girls in to the mix, so, the marriage was tried in lots of different ways, but like a good wine, ageing made it all worthwhile.


The first and only significant thing to go against them, was the stillborn or neonatal death of their baby Angela. As you can imagine, the fact that my sister's baby was stillborn was a huge thing, as they were so well known in the area where they lived, eventually it became common knowledge that their baby had died but before that could happen, people would say to her, "Oh, where is your baby?" or "what did you call the baby" or something along those lines, Maria had to explain over and over again, what had happened to her. Most times, my sister was the one trying to make them feel better!


Angela, was a full-term, still-birth and I was one of the people who didn't know what to say and stupidly said to Maria, "Never mind, it wasn't as if the baby was 6 months old or 3 years old, and you knew her, you can have another one". How can I have been so obtuse??? I didn't understand at all until about 12 years after Angela had died, and I had a baby myself, then I knew what heartbreak my lovely sister had gone through at such a young age. Angela had  Anencephaly - a congenital birth defect. The next baby was joyously awaited but disaster struck again when the child had the same defect as Angela and so was terminated.


After a length of time, Maria and Milton has a son Aaron! What a fabulous gift he was to a sister who had been so sad, now although they most certainly would never forget the death of their first child, the grief started to abate. Aaron was a gorgeous little boy and has grown into a lovely young man and is still making his parents proud by becoming a F18 Hornet pilot in the RAAF, and just recently he (and his beautiful wife Anna), has returned home to Newcastle after two years in the US working with the US Navy as a pilot.


Then, they added another miracle to their lives, with their daughter, Martine. What a lovely family they now had! I remember driving Aaron to Pre-school and him wearing a 1/2 Mile jogging suit! He was so cute! When Maria drove us to pick him up in the afternoon, he went to sleep in the car and when we tried to wake him up, he had turned into Mr Grumpy (from the Mr Men books that he loved), who came home with us!!


He and Martine, had a most wonderful life and did many fabulous and interesting things while growing up in Newcastle. Aaron played piano, guitar, cricket and soccer and Martine did netball, piano, guitar and ballet (boy have we got the photos to show! Martine is in so many beautiful costumes that Maria made for her daughter). Martine has completed a social work degree and now works at the JHH, but she still plays the guitar and her music is still a big part of her life. The kids loved travelling to different parts of the world with their parents and they all had a ball.


These wonderful people have been so much a part of my life and especially now since I had the stroke. I am happy to tell you all that my sister Maria and her husband Milt are still having the most wonderful marriage after 35 years!