How to get personal history into the larger world, Max: this an interesting take. I think the distance you maintain (mention of your mother once in st 3, then "'We kids' at the end) works...
It's a story, for sure...
Doug
On 2013-01-02, at 3:32 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> What happened to Arthur Pepper, Max? 'Away' - off - or away dead? The treble bits in the final line do the job. Poor Bella.
>
> Hoo roo,
> Bill
>
> On 02/01/2013, at 8:47 PM, Max Richards wrote:
>
>> The Peppers of Meeanee
>> (Hawkes Bay, N.Z.)
>>
>>
>> Late Victorian/Edwardian Kiwis,
>> Mother's siblings came in quick succession:
>> these sons and daughters made the migrant
>>
>> Guthries proud. Donegal and the Shetlands
>> were lost places. But Robert's wife fell sick
>> and died; Bella his first-born must leave school
>>
>> to help. Robert and Bella managed, just -
>> some kids got some schooling, Kay (my mother)
>> even became a teacher. Bella wed
>>
>> a bandy little ex-jockey, farmhand
>> Arthur Pepper. What befell them next
>> was dire - Bella's head ached, she lost
>>
>> control of legs, arms and jaws. Doctors
>> in Napier guessed (this was in the '20s)
>> she must have a brain tumour. Rare was
>>
>> brain surgery back then, rarer was it
>> successful. The young surgeon who opened
>> Bella's skull was skilful and in luck.
>>
>> Survived, recovered, learned to walk and talk;
>> back home, resumed her family tasks.
>> Away they all went in turn, until
>>
>> the Peppers had only old Robert
>> to look after, bouncing grandchildren
>> on his lap, reading the Napier paper, every word.
>>
>> She got about on walking sticks
>> grateful for help - wood for the kitchen
>> stove, the fire that boiled the laundry copper,
>>
>> the water pumped from the artesian bore.
>> Arthur biked each day to whichever farm
>> needed him. Horses were way back
>>
>> in his past. Only at the pub did he
>> talk about them before the unsteady walk home.
>> With Bella (fumbled speech) it was the vege-patch,
>>
>> the chance of rain, the ailments
>> of the locals. We kids would ask
>> 'Why does auntie Bella talk like that?'
>>
>> 'Look closely at her tongue.' We did - it had
>> a jagged edge. Bella when the tumour struck
>> had bit, bit and bit her own tongue.
>>
>
Douglas Barbour
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