“I was born in Ashfield in Sydney in August 1934 and My Dad Paul Askew was a Policeman who got transferred to Lismore. I had my second birthday here. Dad worked in the force here for 22 years. He held the record for being in the same station for the longest time.
My father looked after the Queen when she was here in the 1954 floods. Queen Elizabeth was staying at the Gollan Hotel in town and Dad was the one looking after her. He also trained a lot of the boys in the Rowing Club.
I started school at what is now the Conservatorium which was Lismore Public School back then. We lived in 27 Dawson St at the time. When the war was on Dad sent my mother, my brother and me to Trangie out near Nyngan because they thought the Japanese were coming in. I spent 6 months out there being tutored on a sheep farm next door. I had to ride a bike a couple of miles every morning to school. I was about 10 and I also did correspondence school for 6 months.
When we came back we lived in Garrard St in Lismore. By then they had turned the Conservatorium into a high school and they had built East Lismore Public School where I completed Year 5 and 6 then back to High School in the Con. I used to swim for Lismore in the Memorial Pool. I loved to swim.
I remember vividly the day the war was declared over. The people who lived across the road from the Hodges (my father’s family), he had a ute and he loaded all of us kids in the tray of the ute and we drove around town clapping and singing and cheering. There were so many people celebrating the fact that the war was over. That was 1945.
I worked for Jack Thomas and Co for a year and then I did four years of Nursing at Lismore Base Hospital. We were Nursing during the 54 flood and we weren’t allowed to leave the hospital. We took all the patients out of the hospital to see the Queen as she drove up Uralba St and turned around to come back down the road and it poured. The hospital had done our uniforms with extra starch to make us all look beautiful and we were totally drenched. The beds were wet. We weren’t allowed to get changed until we fixed all the patients up.
I left nursing, got married to John, came out here to Caniaba and milked cows (laughs). I had three boys pretty close together David, Alan and Jim and then I had some troubles and was told I couldn’t have any more. We adopted two girls, Margaret who was three weeks old at the time and Janine who was three and a half. Not long after we were surprised because I discovered I was pregnant with another boy Steven, so I have six children. I have 16 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren with one on the way and one great, great grandchild. John died 18 years ago at 73. We sadly lost Alan to a car accident when he was just 18.
I love having a big family. I only had the one brother and I was the eldest. We didn’t get on at all until we were adults. As kids he was a nightmare. During the war we couldn’t get toys and my aunty bought me a little black doll and I loved that little doll. I called her Topsy. Aunty made a red knitted dress, a bonnet and little boots for it. One day my brother had a fight with me, he picked up my doll and threw it off the verandah onto cement and broke it to bits. It was terrible. It was the only time that I saw my mother give him a smack.
I’ve had a busy life. I was always involved in Caniaba School, the P&C, also the Rural Fire Brigade here. My boys have been in the Brigade as well. David is the Captain here now in Caniaba. I always get a special invite to the Christmas party. I’ve loved being involved in all our community things. There’s a long history of all our family going to Caniaba School. I still have my drivers license so I still drive. I live alone in my own home which is great and my house is always busy with family which I love.”