Moi and Mine

Forty years is a long time. I was surprised at my sadness at my mother’s moving from her home for as many years. All these years I’ve been coming to Brisbane thinking this was not my home; this is not where I grew up. My children, Natala and Sheila, know only this place as their grandparent’s home. But me, I was only passing through.

I will miss the old home. I took as many pictures as possible and posted them on my Flickr site in a Mum’s House (set) folder. I will also miss Milton Road. The first time I was there with the family we were driving up from Melbourne and couldn’t find it. A young woman who had just got off work at midnight hopped in our car and took us there! I will miss being able to walk to La Dolce Vita on Park Road and visit Mary Ryan’s bookstore. I will miss the Night Owl a few blocks the other way and the Auchenflower train station in the other direction and the Wesley hospital where my father died. I will miss the memories of my dad in that home. He is not here on Swann Rd. although it is beautiful; a view of the city with tight security and a manager and caretaker and where the employees of the Body Corporate mow the grass. I’m glad my mother is not in a “home” or a sequestered "village" where everyone is old. I’m glad she’s next door to my sister, Margo, and they can sit and crochet together. I’ll come back and learn a new part of Brisbane—the Toowong and Indooroopilly Shopping Centres are still here—but it won’t ever be the same again.

There is still a lot to see and do in Australia. I’ll have to drive the Capricorn Hwy, which follows the Tropic across Queensland. I missed Surfer’s Paradise this time, being winter. Still have to fly to Darwin and down to Tasmania. Go out to see Ayer’s Rock. And, of course, come back to visit with Mum. Soon.

I learned a few things about being eighty-seven years old:

• You can spend all your energy between 5 AM and 9 AM just in time for your favourite TV shows.
• Although you never have to cook because your daughter’s kitchen is just next door and her fridge is always packed with food and if not, there’s the Big Rooster
• You are very impatient, want it all to be done today because you are truly living as if every day is your last day on earth now
• You don’t mind switching off every single light and sitting in the dark to save electricity so long as there’s cricket on TV
• You can dress up as Queen Victoria to attend a tea with gay abandon
  
• You can go to church and give a ride to ladies younger than you (but less competent) and take them to buy their groceries, too.
• But, you can confuse your grandmother’s maiden name with my grandmother’s maiden name and no one takes offence
• You can also forget your password for hotmail and go offline for a week
• You can change your mind 3x a day and be certain every time until action is taken and then your are sure it was wrong
• You can live until you are ninety-seven this way, or even longer
• You can remember back when George V was King of England and Herbert Hoover was President of the United States of America

I was surprised when Hilary Clinton said there had only been three Democratic presidents (in her memory). I remember sitting close to a radio in Madras listening to the results of John F. Kennedy’s election, the first Catholic president. There were no women announcers on the radio back then.

Hilary Clinton said in the suspension of her campaign speech today: “Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time…it's got about 18 million cracks in it ... and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.” (Here's the text of Hilary Clinton's speech).

Sometimes I think there is more news on Australian television regarding American politics than in the USA. When we vote in November, the world will be watching.