Hazel

10 May 1948 – 14 September 1998

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 15:07:06 EDT
To: bobm@agsm.edu.au
Subject: My cousin Hazel

Dear Joshua and Zoë,

We were deeply shocked to hear of your mum Hazel’s death and although we have communicated with your dad, we haven’t met or spoken to you before.

As children growing up, Hazel and I didn’t meet up very often. There was an occasion when Uncle Leslie was stationed with the RAF in Odiham that we all got together - we being Elaine, Penny and I and Pat, Joan and Hazel and we all played on a farm, and I remember Hazel and I jumping off some farm machinery and landing in some straw - we had good fun that day. I don’t remember how long we stayed but it was a long time before we met again. There are parts of my childhood that I don’t remember but we must have all been together at my grandmother and grandfather’s house in Manchester.

I met Hazel again a few years later when she was living in Winscombe - I was married with two small children and she was still at school. As the years went by I often heard about Hazel from your grandmother Ada and she was always doing wacky things like going to Portugal in an old taxi cab or hitch hiking around the world. I remember admiring her at the time for having the courage to do such things.

I met up with your mum twice in Sydney - first time was when we travelled from Perth where we were staying. We stayed with Jim’s brother Bill and Hazel came to see us. We had a good time catching up with each other after all the years. The second time was when I was visiting my son in Perth and then I travelled to Sydney and Hazel met me at the airport. I stayed with your mum and dad in the flat they lived in before the house you live in now, in fact your house was being built - anyway we had a good time and it was nice spending time on my own with your mum - it was the first time in our lives that we had spent time on our own. I remember with great pride her showing me around the Attorney’s Department and going through all the security systems.

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Ann was Hazel’s first cousin. Ann’s sisters are Elaina and Penny; her mother was Ivy, Ada’s sister.