Gladys Murrell & Kerry Wright - 1950

L-R: Gladys Murrell & Kerry Wright

1950

My most dear and much loved Aunty Glad (my mother's older sister, Gladys Ann Murrell nee Glover) with me, Kerry Wright, in the garden of my home at 10 Mactier Street, Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Aunty Glad lived not far away from us, towards the lake end of Mactier Street. Her house was more posh than ours and I loved the canopied mosquito nets Aunty Glad had draped above the beds at her place. As a child, I remember thinking how exotic and elegant they looked. In retrospect, I now realize they were an absolute necessity for lakeside living, to escape the nocturnal swarms of ravenous mosquitos terrorizing the residents. Exotic and elegant or just plain practical, I still would have loved to have had one of those nets draped above my own little bed. Even though we lived at the ocean end of Mactier Street, my bedroom was on a partially open verandah, and I copped my fair share of mozzie bites in my time. Aunty Glad lived with Uncle Eric (Eric Murrell) and their only daughter, my cousin, Dorothy (Dorothy Cynthia Shiels nee Murrell), who is my Godmother.