George Henry & Louisa Mary Glover - ca.1950

George Henry & Louisa Mary Glover

ca.1950

In the absence of a date, I am guessing this photo of my maternal grandparents, George Henry (1874-1960) and Louisa Mary (1870-1960) Glover, was taken some time around 1950.  My family lived at 10 Mactier Street, Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches, and my grandparents lived next-door at number 8.

They passed away within just a few short months of each other in 1960, when I was 10. I can still see them clearly in my mind's eye and have vivid recollections of sitting on their front verandah with Nanny when I was just a small child, listening to the stories she told me. They kept budgerigars in a cage on the verandah, and also had a bright yellow canary named Dickie in a cage of his own. The chirping and chatter of the caged birds provided a constant accompaniment to my grandmother's story telling.

Because Nanny's presence on her verandah was such an established feature of the local landscape (she sat there and read the Sydney Morning Herald every morning), cars would gently beep their horns at her in greeting as they drove past. I remember Nanny would wave to them cheerily and then turn to me with a big grin and a wink and say, "I wonder who that was."

On my way to school each morning, I would call in on Nanny to wish her a good day. I usually found her in her darkened, Victorianesque bedroom, cluttered with porcelain vases and figurines, brushing her long white hair vigorously. After many strokes of the brush, it was ultimately fashioned into a bun at the back of her head, often held in place with a delicate black hair-net. From what I remember, Papa was usually pottering in his garden while all this was going on. He loved his garden and took a great deal of pride in it. I can still conjure-up the beautiful fragrance of his sweet peas to this very day.

Mum and Aunty Glad cared for Nanny through her final illness. Mum later told me that she had suggested to Papa that perhaps he might be more comfortable in another bed during that sad time. Apparently he responded that he had been sleeping alongside his beloved May for the past 70 years and wasn't about to change beds any time soon. And that's exactly where he was, sleeping beside her, when she passed away. He died not long after at nearby Manly Hospital, following a massive haemorrhage.

 They are pictured above in their front garden at 8 Mactier Street, Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches. They rest beside each other at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens & Crematorium in Sydney's North Ryde.