My sister in law...

Last Sunday the families gathered to celebrate a number of anniversaries being celebrated by my sister in law Sonja. Sonja had organised a barbeque lunch at the Coorparoo Bowls Club. Ever the organiser, she distributed white napkins to serve as placemats and folded paper napkins (serviettes) in red, white and blue.

When it came time for the guest of honour/hostess to give a speech, Sonja explained why this year was a significant one regarding anniversaries.

Firstly, last Sunday was her 71st birthday. Secondly, Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of Sonja arriving in Brisbane with her parents and older sister, after they had emigrated to Australia from Denmark. Sonja reminisced that she could remember the ship ( a Norwegian cruise ship) making its way up the Brisbane River to where the port was then located, right in the city at Petrie Bight. She recalled that she found the houses in Brisbane so colourful after the 'white and grey' of Denmark.
And thirdly, Sunday was just a few days short of the 50 years since she became an Australian citizen. So lots of good reasons to have a celebration as the family all agreed.
The desserts were amazing! The large rectangular cake is a traditional Danish cake...sorry I don't remember the name though! It's layers of sponge cake (like a Victoria sponge cake) with jam.. The chocolate cake was made by a niece of Sonja's, the pavlova was decorated by Sonja and the iced fruit cake with Australia on top was made by our cousin.

Let me tell you a bit more about my lovely sister in law...long before I could ever have imagined marrying into the Goodwin family, I cut out a photo of the Brisbane evening paper, the Telegraph. I had recognised someone from a family that had gone to my primary school. In my teens I kept scrapbooks filled with newspaper cuttings of people I knew even if some didn't know me!! That 'someone' was Keith and his then fiancé Sonja.

They were buying Sonja's wedding shoes. An old Danish custom involved a bride-to-be saving for her wedding shoes, collecting copper coins in the lowest denomination, and storing them in a champagne bottle. In the article (from 1967-68), Sonja explained that she was glad that Australia had new coins after the switch to decimal currency, as the old penny and halfpenny coins would not have fitted in the neck of the bottle.


The shoes, described as 'guipure lace sling backs' cost $10.99. ( so there were at least 1099 cent pieces in that bottle...or so we're told!)

Sonja and my brother in law, not only had teaching careers in Australia (North Queensland and Sydney), but also some time in Canada. They had 2 children and Keith was active in the Jaycees. Then he entered politics  and became Mayor of Cairns in 1988.

Then tragedy struck...Keith was killed in a plane crash in May 1990. In an interview with the New Idea magazine, my elegant and dignified sister in law stated, 'Maybe God was calling a meeting upstairs and he wanted a very good chairman'.

And then Sonja stood for council herself.

Eventually Sonja came back to Brisbane to live, which was great because most of the family is here, and we see her a lot more as a consequence.

 At DH and my wedding in 2004, Sonja caught the bouquet, but no Mr Right has come along...we still often joke with each other about that! lol
The next photo was taken on Sonja's birthday 5 years ago...she came for afternoon tea and brought her own cake!

And finally a photo of me with the youngest guest there last Sunday...little Anthea!

 

A bit about our Sydney Trip...

We crammed a fair bit into our week, which suggests a series of posts doesn't it? But not in chronological order as I'm just 'itching' to write a post about what was the highlight of our trip...the day I met my 'new' cousins and their respective spouses. My cousin Lucy hosted a lunch at her home.

So, with the introductions over we all sat down. 

I had a little jewellery pouch in my handbag containing some special items that I brought with me from Brisbane. My plan was that I would show the contents to my cousins after we had had lunch. But I was so eager to show them these items that within half an hour I had taken them out of the pouch and unwrapped the tissue paper parcel...

Here are some close up photos of the items. I'd taken the photos at home.

Nothing special perhaps at first glance, except these had  belonged to my Sicilian grandmother. She had died in the early 1900s when my father was very young, and my mother had found these items in my father's belongings after he died. 

The rings show that my grandmother ( my cousins' great grandmother) was a woman with large hands/fingers. The rings are also very thin...from wear.

The ring resting on my right thumb has always been my favourite piece of Nonna's jewellery.

I wore it at my first wedding as my 'something old' ( probably over 100 years old in the 1970s) as did both my daughters. It's that ring on my middle finger, right hand in the next photo. ( even on my middle finger it was still too big and kept slipping around my finger! Lol)

Ann, my cousin's wife, also took photos of Lucy and I checking out the earrings and rings...

Last month I had made the decision that I would keep that one ring and give the other items to my cousins...I just knew it was the right thing to do and I know the items will be treasured. 

After that we all sat down to a delicious lunch...my cousin Lucy and her husband put on quite a spread! 

During the afternoon we checked out our Ancestry.com.au family trees...Frank and Lucy on a laptop and me with my well travelled iPad. 

We also looked at family photos...I had missed out on seeing my cousins and their siblings grow up so it was wonderful to see all those photos.

No longer strangers...we all felt so comfortable in each other's company; as though we'd known each other all our lives.

And my wonderful and generous cousins also gave me some ID documents that had belonged to their uncle...another nephew of my father's. I 'see my father' when he was a young man in these photos...very special.

What a wonderful day! . 

The Italian Presence in Queensland; An exhibition...

In a previous post I wrote about our morning spent at the little museum in William St, Brisbane. We went specifically to see the present exhibition there, which features aspects of Italian migration to Queensland throughout the years. My sister in law Mary, and I, are both children of immigrants,  from mainland Italy 

and, in my father's case, from Sicily.

I was thrilled that we were allowed to take photos of the exhibits...so I did of course!

This the traditional hat of the mountain warfare commando units known as the Alpini (northern Italy) which  were originally formed  in 1872.  (Also in the photo are 2 examples of Murano glass)

There are still units of Alpini soldiers in the present day but many units were disbanded. According to sources that I checked, these soldiers are  presently serving in Afghanistan. And this photo below shows what the uniform looks like now...the old felt hats were quite impressive but I guess not very practical in modern warfare.

An old piano accordion of an Italian immigrant... 

A very ornate tureen/covered dish/ serving bowl

 The Tamborine in the foreground of this photo is one which was painted by my SIL for some cultural events ( folk dancing)  held by the Sicilian society.

A display featuring Italian immigrants such as Ross Mangano and the famous early Australian architect, Andrea Strombuco. The latter was responsible for many beautiful buildings just in Brisbane alone.

An OTT soup tureen from 'the old country'

Examples of bombiere (handed out at weddings) 

One of the information boards

Photos showing Italian immigrants and their culture...

Knitted lace items...

 Below is the display board about Italian immigrants in the Stanthorpe area...where my father did go to take up farming prior to WW2.

The part of the exhibition that I was most interested in was the Italian presence in Queensland's sugar industry. My father left Sicily in 1924 to join his brother in cutting cane in the Innisfail district...

There was a cane knife on display

And there was a display board with photos of workers on the cane fields of north Queensland...

And these are my photos...well they belonged to my father....someday I must find someone or some place where I can donate copies of these old photos. Then one day they might be in an exhibition like the one in the Commissariat Store. :-)

My dad is kneeling at the front on the right... some of the men are holding  stalks of cane...

Clowning around here...my dad is in the middle!

My SIL and I became entirely immersed in the displays and excitedly recalling memories of our childhoods where we 'lived' between 2 worlds...and two cultures.

Discs for an old style pasta machine

This is a large chest/trunk similar to the one that my SIL's mother brought out from Italy

 And this is not part of the Italian presence Exhibition...it's a lovely old grandfather clock just inside the entrance to the museum.

It was great stepping back in time for an hour or two.