The Noon Lady of Towitta Read Online Free PDF Page B

next night he would refuse to settle until told a story. And so each night Giscelia or Aunt Katie-Lizzie continued the storytelling.
    I felt that by my telling the life of my father as he used to tell it, together with stories my Aunt Giscelia told me, Sister Kathleen would understand something about German–Wendish families living in a harsh and isolated South Australian environment. Sister Kathleen rarely interrupted. She sat quietly and took over my knitting so that I could give attention to storytelling. I told my stories as though reading them from a book, and Sister Kathleen listened to every word while the knitting needles clicked in time to the rhythm of my voice.
    When I reached the point in my story when Father and Aunt Giscelia reached South Australia, Sister Kathleen was so relieved that she went off to find a jug of cold water. Pouring out a tumbler of water and then passing it to me she said, ‘My goodness, what a start to a new life in South Australia. I wondered who was actually going to be left alive to disembark from the ship. Are you sure you are telling me the truth, Mary?’
    â€˜Well of course, Sister, his life gets better. But as you will hear, he still had difficulties to overcome during his schooldays. Aunt Giscelia and Katie-Lizzie – who we now referred to as our grandmother – told me the next part of Father’s life when I was a teenager. It will give you an understanding of what Father had to put up with being Wendish and this may help to explain why he was the way he was. But none of what I tell you will ever excuse the way he treated our family with such brutality.’
    â€˜Oh, Mary, no one can be that brutal.’
    â€˜You have no idea, Sister.’
    â€˜You can tell me the next part of the story when I come by tomorrow afternoon. I have to go now as Matron is planning to give us a talk. I won’t be able to sleep tonight though. I’ll be having my own nightmares of wolves and being swept overboard. As you say, Mary, it is hard to believe. But like a frightening fairytale I can’t wait to hear what’s next.’

3
    The next part of Mathes’ life was told in several sessions for Sister Kathleen was not able to spend more than ten minutes at a time with me over the next few days. I had gathered bits and pieces over the years about Father growing up. Sometimes as we sat around the table in the evening Aunt Giscelia and my grandparents and other relatives brought up incidents that had happened to Father.
    The next time Sister Kathleen could stay with me for some time I asked her to tell me a little about herself.
    â€˜Why did you become a nurse?’ I asked her.
    â€˜I thought you might ask that question. My mother’s sister, my Auntie Vera, married into a German family. My uncle’s grandfather was a well-known doctor in the Barossa Valley. When I was a little girl, my uncle used to tell me and my brother and sister tales about his grandfather who mended bones or cut them off, or made limbs to replace them. Gory really, but we loved to hear them. Uncle’s grandfather was quite famous in his day.’
    â€˜You’re a quiet one. Tell me more.’ I was curious to know the story of this kind woman who had taken an interest in my life.
    â€˜I will, I promise I will, but I’m not here for long today and I’d really like to hear about your father.’
    â€˜All right, but you’re not going to have it all your own way, you know, Sister.’ And I began the story of how my father was turned into a bully, the way Grandpa Herman had told me.
    After such harrowing early years, life settled down somewhat for Mathes in Blumberg, South Australia. But it was not always easy for Mathes. Aunt Katie-Lizzie was kind and loving but Uncle Herman could be overly stern. He was extra hard on Mathes because he didn’t want to be seen to raise a weak boy. Perhaps it was also because Mathes was not his son. Already haunted