Letters to Ann

Dear Ann,

With Father’s Day in the offing I started to think of the Fathers I had in my life & it has been quite interesting. I had five Fathers to think about: perhaps a tad more than most would have & I loved them all.

Firstly, as a little girl living my very early life in my Grandparents home. I well remember my Great Grandfather, Richard Hilder. He was the Father of my Gran & when he visited his daughter & husband, he would sit me on his knee hugging me & chatting to me.

A lot of history went before him as he was instrumental in the settling of the North West Cost of Tasmania. He was also a lay preacher in the Burnie Methodist Church for almost sixty years & left behind him a great legacy in many ways.

He kept records of his life’s activities & his books & writings were presented to the Burnie Museum where they are available to read today. There are also land marks in & around Burnie which are tributes to Richard & the work he did, such as the Richard Hilder Gates which open to Burnie Park & the promenade known as Richard Hilder Parade adjacent to the main beach.

I remember many years ago when staying with my sister, Trixie, in Burnie we were discussing Richard Hilder. I said I could picture him in my mind from a little girl & my niece, Kassandra, asked me what he looked like. I described him.

A few minutes later Trixie came out with a very old photo of him. I had described him perfectly. He was a very distinguished looking man. I also have a personal memory of him as he always gave me a birthday gift & the last one he gave me was a box of hankies that happened to be men’s.

I recall asking my Mum why he gave me mens handkerchiefs to which Mum replied that it was just probably because Great Grandfather was getting old. I was nine years of age when he passed away & I feel very privileged that he was part of my life for that long.

Lucky girl that I was, I also had two Grandfathers: George Graham on my Mother’s side & Edward Aylett on my Father’s side. Grandfather George was a carpenter by trade & his joinery shop was just a block down from the Burnie Primary School that I attended for many years.

If I missed the bus after school to home in Upper Burnie, where I lived with Grandfather, I would walk down to his joinery shop & watch him work. He evidently was a good tradesman as he was always busy. I was intrigued with all the different works of art he made.

Many years later I employed him to make several little cupboards for my Tupperware girls for them to do demonstrations with. I had introduced this type of demonstration to do at Tupperware parties, which became extremely popular. Grandfather remembered this to his dying day & seemed very proud that he was able to do that for me & my Tupperware girls.

I wasn’t as close to Grandfather Aylett, as for some reason, I felt a little intimidated by him. He & Grandma Aylett always seemed a litte bit remote when I was a young girl. They had twelve children & therefore endowed me with lots of Aunts & Uncles who played a large part in my life for which I was always thankful.

Grandfather had a tannery business I found fascinating. It was only two doors from where they lived in Cooee. Although I found it interesting watching him tanning the hides & getting them ready for sale it was a very smelly business so I wouldn’t spend too much time in the tannery.

At that time we were living with the Aylett grandparents waiting for Dad to finish building a new home for his growing family in the suburb of Cooee. It was only minutes for me to go from the tannery back to home.

One of my most putrid memories was jumping over the filthy open drain that ran beside the tannery. I didn’t quite make it to the other side and became submerged in the filthy contents. Oh what a mess I was from top to toe.

I was not altogether the most popular person when I arrived home covered in the muck! This kind of outlet would never be permitted in this day & age & thank goodness for that. Grandfather & Grandma were always good & kind to me & played a big part in my growing up years.

Then of course I had my biological Father, Charley Aylett. What a hard worker he was. He struggled to build a life for his growing family & in his early years had a cane shop in Burnie from which he made furniture.

It was fascinating to watch Dad doing this & his tongue would do wonderful things as he wove the cane in & out. He did this with great speed & it seemed to help him. When he had his tongue out his hands moved & so did his tongue so he quickly got the nickname of ‘Tongue Aylett’.

I have written to you many times about my Dad, so suffice to say he led a very interesting life, worked hard & passed away at the tender age of fifty four. He & Mum divorced after nearly twenty five years of marriage & six children. My brother & sisters were amongst the greatest gifts in my life, so I have always thanked my parents for this.

Both my parents remarried & therefore Len Clarke became my fifth Father as a Stepfather. Because of this I was given another brother & sister & I thanked them too. Our Step Dad became ‘Uncle Len’ to us oldies as by now I was a young married woman myself.

Having Uncle Len as a step Father was wonderful to all of us. He became very dear to our hearts. I feel sure I would suffer no contradiction from my siblings when I say that he was a beautiful man, one we were very privileged to know & his passing caused many tears to be shed.

And so, with many thoughts passing through my head this Father’s Day & knowing the thought, love & caring my son, David, the Father of two, had put into bringing up his children I wanted to do something special.

David has never had to smack the girls for any little sins they may have committed in the past 19 & 23 years but has used psychology as a teacher. He has taught Riley & Charley the rights & wrongs of life through sincerity & wisdom. I had no doubts about the card I gave to him on this special day.

I wrote:

“To my son, David on Father’s day. I had five FATHERS in my life: one Great GrandFATHER, two GrandFATHERS, one Biological FATHER, & one Step FATHER.

Then I had a son called David & I consider him to be, in my opinion & in my own experience to be the Best FATHER of them all & I am very proud of you,

Have a Happy Father’s Day with love always from Mum’.

I will digress a little as I ruined the first card I used, making it necessary to go to the newsagent to search for a second card. It didn’t take long as a blank card jumped out at me with a blue combi van on the front. This could not have been more perfect as he has owned a blue combi van since he was young & is in the process of giving it a mighty face lift that is going to make it among the best combi vans in Australia. So how perfect was that for a card!

As a gift I gave him something very practical, a bottle of Tumeric tablets for his arthritic hands which, has done wonders for mine.

My grand daughters said I was biased. David said I was his best fan ever & Lauren said “Let’s all go to dinner tonight to celebrate the day as well as the best FATHER. So we did, we had a fantastic dinner at their favourite restaurant, Benjamas & enjoyed the best Thai food ever!

Love to you always. Dawn X O X O

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