Ooh! It's hard to have one's own page in a family history book - but, if I want others to have a page either about them or their family, then isn't it only right and fair to do the same thing myself?

Links: hover your mouse, finger or stylus over the highlighted text, then click on it and a link will appear - click on this new text and it will take you to the linked page.

Some of my story can be found in the next layer down called "Motherless Daughter".

I come from a long line of Maggie Hopes, right down through the ages of our family history, every generation has had their own "Maggie Hope" and sometimes there's been two or more in the same generation, so I feel priviledged to follow them, in name-only of course.

We each have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents and 16 great, great grandparents. Of my 16 g.g.grandparents, I can name each one. Can you? Of those; 8 are from Scotland, 7 from England and 1 is from Ireland.

Another part of my story comes in the way of using coloured beads instead of words to tell my story - (however, I've provided an explanation). It's called "Maggie's Life Beads".

Four things, amongst others that are important to me:

• my family's history and all who have gone before me - all who make me who I am - their lives, their struggles, their adventures, their sadness and grief; and best of all, their love and strength of character
• my Christian heritage
• my Christian faith
• the love of and for my husband, Norm

One of my interests, hobbies and passions is fabric and threads. I love sewing, these days I mainly do patchwork and quilting stuff (but not necessarily 'quilts' per se) and in the past have dabbled in knitting, crochet, tatting and even had a go at bobbin lace-making. If it's got anything to do with thread, yarn or fabric, I've probably had a go at it. From whence did that come? I often wonder! In a previous life, I won First Prizes in Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne Royal Shows for some of my handiwork - even won a "Best in Show" which was pretty neat. I'm sure I was born with a needle and thread in my hands.

Herewith are a few photos of some of my projects over the years...

Patchwork and Quilting isn't always about making Quilts...

I enjoy playing around with fabric, scissors and threads!

A sample of the dozens of Quillos I've made...

The photo of the white cross in the Banner of my page was taken at Sereqna in Egypt, 2015. It was on a gate, down a narrow, winding path across from the local church - I loved the beautiful bougainvillea growing through it - I thought it was stunning at the time and I still love it.

I and my siblings were born in the mid-north of South Australia, where our maternal grandparents lived - although by the time we were born our grandfather had already died - he was killed in a train accident when our mother was just 3 months old - and that's a whole different story for another time, day and place!

Recently, I've been in touch with the daughter of Dad's best mate while we were in the Mid-North and she clearly remembers our family - we had an inside toilet which impressed her at the time and also, we had a car which meant that Dad could drive them home after an evening at our place - a real treat, especially in the depths of Winter, where it sometimes snowed or at least rained heaps, with hailstones and sleet. Ah! the memories we have from our childhood days!!!

My greatest memory from our time there is not of our own home but of my grandmother's home, where I loved to be. And why not? I didn't want to play ball games with my older brothers but to hang out with my grandmother, who only lived a couple of streets away.

While we were all in Primary School (1957) the family moved to the South East coz apparently, that's where our parents had honeymooned and they had promised themselves that one day, they would live there. And so they did.

However, we were only there for 2.5 years when our mother died suddenly and there we were with a relatively new support network and no family close at hand. But our neighbours, people at our church and other Railway families did a superb job of gathering around us and providing for us in so many ways, as, when and where they could.

Within 18 months of Mum's death, it was settled (without me having a say in it) that I would live with my paternal grandparents in Adelaide - it was decreed that it was not appropriate for a young lady to be brought up in a house with 4 brothers and a father - and so I was sent off to the big smoke to be brought up as an 'only child'.

However, as 3 of my brothers were older than me, in due course, Dad moved the family up to the City, as the boys were needing a higher level of education than our country town could offer; and so after a few more years we were once again a family. Although, by now, we were all teenagers and led our own lives and so really, we were family in name only and living under the same roof but we had all grown apart and that sense of "being family" had already been lost to each of us. Dad worked shift work and so was hardly home and while we probably didn't realise it at the time (at least, I didn't), the last time we were "family" was before our Mother died.

However, life continued on for many years, as life tends to do - in the meantime, our father died suddenly and us 5 kids were left to drag ourselves through the remainder of our teen years, as best we could. Somehow we managed it...

And then Norm entered my life - or rather, I entered his. On the first day we met, he went home and told his parents that he'd just met the girl he was going to marry - the only trouble was that he had a girlfriend at the time and I had a boyfriend. But where love is, then there is also a way forward - and eventually we did indeed marry!

Initially, we lived in Darwin - where in the meantime, he had transferred with his work, before returning to Adelaide. And then we did the usual things - like buy a house, get some pets and get on with life - but no children. We did heaps of camping with friends in our tents, mainly going to far away beaches but sometimes along the River Murray or into the Flinders Ranges. We also embarked on overseas travel - mainly to the UK and Europe - to visit Norm's family (yep! he was born in England) and to discover new sights further afield; new experiences and adventures.

I started work when I was 15 years old - in those days one could! I started out as a telephonist and then swapped within the Department to an Admin role and there I stayed for the rest of my working life - in Admin but not in the same Department, nor with the same organisation. I worked in various Departments withing the telecommunications organisation, then did a contract with the University of SA before going into Admin Support within the Medical Education system, which I loved - but then again, I loved all my jobs! When we lived overseas I was PA (Personal Assistant) to the CEO of a Christian Multi Media Organisation and from there, I went into early retirement once we returned to Australia. However, retirement doesn't mean doing nothing and from there I did volunteer admin for our local Member of Parliament and also in our Church Office.

But back to the leisure time - in latter years the tents and camper trailers have given way to a caravan; and together with cruises to some interesting places. We enjoy our times together whether they be at home, in our van or on the high seas.

For a season we lived in Egypt and I've written a few words about our time there called "Sizzling Sands". It too, is still a works-in-progress but here's the link anyway...

These days I spend some of my time in the garden, usually trying to get on top of the weeds, while Norm grows many of our vegetables and in recent times, he's started planting fruit trees. I still have a passion for sewing and love to teach others how to sew and to this end, I run a sewing group at our local church for anyone who wants to join me. It's never been a big group and often there's just 3, 4 or 5 of us - a lovely number where we can do our own thing, ask for advice or simply sew and chat. I love patchwork and quilting but I'm just an average person when it comes to my end products. I love to design new quilts, even though I don't make many of them up. And I have so many projects on the go that I get dizzy thinking about 'what's next'. I also have enough ideas and fabric to keep me going until I'm about 150 years old, so hopefully I won't drop off the perch any time soon or lose my marbles! However, once a quilter, always a quilter and the temptation of new fabrics, colour ways and designs, as well as new patterns and ideas of what to do with said fabric have their own powers of attraction...

I also continue with my long time interest in gathering information about my family tree - the 'from whence and whom did I come' questions. I love reading about the history of the places of my ancestors and wonder what life was like for them. We look back now and say they were hard and tough times but did they think that at the time? Will the generations yet to come say things like that about my generation?

In more recent times, we've had our DNAs done, which now opens the flood gates of new cousins to discover even wider than it did before. Ah! The joys of genealogy!!!

LINK to Home Page

Thomas Hope (great, great grandfather)

Richmond A Hope (great grandfather)

Edgar W Hope (grandfather)

Lindsay Hope (father)

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