I have two stories to share today.. the first Golden age portrait is of beautiful Beryl. She was kindly transported & assisted by the lovely carers (special thanks to Cassandra) from Fronditha Care.
She was a little hesitant to participate in my project, but I am so glad she ended up trusting me to tell her story & capture her. Beryl told us during the shoot that most of her photos & memories were destroyed many years ago during the floods in Maitland, which is just so sad.
Beryl was born on the 8th December 1926 in Casino N.S.W to Edward and Martha Ann Tapper. Beryl was the youngest of six children and had a wonderful childhood growing up in Wallangarra. Her fondest memory of this time was a personal wave from the Duke and Duchess of York in 1934 (Queen Elizabeth’s Grand Mother). Beryl was sitting on a post in the paddock with her father wearing her grubbiest overalls when a train went past with the Duke and Duchess standing on the platform at the back of the train, when the duchess spotted Beryl she gave her a wave.
Beryl moved to Maitland when she was 13 and attended High School at Maitland Girls High School.
At age 21 Beryl moved to Sydney to live with her brother and move away from Maitland to experience something different. She worked at Sterling Henrys in Flemington which was a manufacture business for materials.
Beryl met Allan Lott in 1950. At first Beryl thought was that he was the stupidest person she had ever met, as he would always wear an army overcoat and have chocolates in his pockets. They shared the same friend group and always got around as a group going to the beaches and hanging out.
Beryl was going to go on a holiday one day when Allan decided to ask her out to dinner, they went out to dinner and decided to become a couple and love bloomed from there.
Beryl and Allan married on the 2nd September 1952 at a registry office in Alburn. Beryl’s fondest memories of the day was her best friend, also named Beryl) Beryl's husband, and baby riding around in the front of the wedding car. When they would stop they would both pop out of the front seat and get funny looks.
Beryl and Allan went on to have four children Mark, Jennifer, Dianne and Grahame. (Dianne passed away at Three weeks old during the Golden Staph epidemic).
Allan passed away in 1962 after Beryl and Allan had been married for 10 years. Allan had had a car accident and had gone to gate keepers at the train station to report it. On this day the sun was hitting the rails blinding vision and they had turned the engines of on the train and it coasted in. Allan did not hear or see the train and got hit by it.
Beryl never remarried and went on to raise the children alone. She said she was very lucky to have friends to help her.
When Beryl retired from work she continued to work hard volunteering her time with the Arthritis association for Twenty years right up until six years ago . Beryl started volunteering at branch level, and worked her way up to become chairperson of the board. After stepping down as chairperson Beryl continued to volunteer once a week with sending out letters and cards. Beryl earned a “Golden Hip Award” and was the first person ever to receive this.
Beryl’s worst memory was being accused by her boss of being a part of the communist party. She had dinner at a Greek Restaurant the night previous and still remembers the Lamb and Risoni. The Greek restaurant was on the bottom floor of a building and the Communist party headquarters was on the top floor. The next day Beryl went in to work and her boss said to her “You were seen going to the communist party building yesterday” Beryl tried to explain that she had only been near the building as she was going to the restaurant, but her boss would not listen. Beryl had had had enough of this so told her boss to “Stick his job” but not quite those words!
Beryl is a grandmother to nine and a great grandmother to eight. She now resides in an aged care facility where is well loved by staff and other residents alike and spends her days reading books attending Trivia and running the residents shop.
