This section of the site contains a collection of stories about Mum and Dad (Muriel and Gordon Harvey). Their very interesting and oft times funny life story can be viewed from a number of phases and I have chosen to in this small collection to focus particularly on the move from Mylestom to Marion Grove and then to Mater Christi.
My brother Keith and others in the family have, and are collecting life stories from a collage of material Mum and Dads wrote over the years. This material was produced particularly for the grandchildren and can be found elsewhere.
Whilst this section of the site focuses on Mum and Dad it strongly relates to me (as it should because its all about ME) as I plan to write about the relationship I had with Mum and Dad.
As a very quick chronology of Mum and Dad starts at Bourke and Gilgandra/Dubbo respectively where they were from birth through to being married.. There is then the Second World War period, followed by the orchard at Mullion Creek which was from 1950 through to 1975 and then to the North Coast of NSW, Mylestom (a small village south of Coffs Harbour) , Marion Grove (Retirement Village) and then Mater Christi (Nursing Home) .
To start, Mum and Dad retired to Mylestom in the mid seventies after spending 25 years at Mullion Creek just outside Orange where they had a beautiful apple and pear orchard.
The vast majority of my childhood memories reside at Mullion in a bygone era. We were innocent country kids growing up economically poor but rich beyond our means with love, home cooking and how to be practical.
It was a fantastic childhood where the good memories far outweigh the bad. It was fun surrounded with love, care and protection. I oft wish this childhood on all children and I hope Mum and Dad knew how special they were as parents even for those times, and the results all their hard work has produced. Four children, all tertiary educated and all successful in their chosen career of engineering/power generation, nursing, telecommunications and teaching.
Thanks Mum and Dad. We all love you even though we may not have always showed this.
After 25 years of hard graft at Mullion Creek on the orchard someone made them an offer for the property that was far too good to refuse. As a result Mum and Dad upped stumps, bought a caravan and with the van hitched to the old Blue Falcon headed up the north coast of NSW seeking the ideal retirement spot.
The plan was to cruise and caravan for a year or so slowly evaluating all the retirement options available on the NSW North Coast.
I digress here to document a well observed Harvey trait which manifests most often in the males of the line.
When a decision is required, and not always a major decision, we generally bugger about and analyse, write lists, agonise over pros and cons, weigh each one into priority lists and then put it all away. We then generally defer the decision for a month or so before oft times not making a decision at all. This sometimes, for unknown reasons, annoys our loved ones!
But sometimes we start the analysis process as described and before the ink is dry on the first list we make and then within minutes implement a life altering decision without a second thought.
This is how it was with Mum and Dad finding the retirement location of their dreams. With the van in tow behind the trusty Blue Falcon Station Wagon, they and Snappy the 3 legged Cocker Spaniel motored north. Now Dad was never a fast driver but with a van in tow and the narrow brimmed ‘goin out’ hat on the average speed was unlikely to make Snappy’s large soft ears get anywhere near lift off speed. So the exploratory party ventured north. We often look for carved trees along the highway but have not found any yet! It was hard to get the bushie out of the old fella.
Some years before the big drive north Mum and Dad had holidayed at Mylestom, a beautiful sleepy little weekender type place at the mouth of the Bellinger River just south of Coffs Harbour. They went there some years before to spend time with Keith and Sandra and their family who had rented a small cottage for the summer holidays.
Secretly Mum and Dad fell in love with Mylestom but never really let on their cunning plan.
Mum, Dad, Snappy, the Blue Falcon and the van saw all of 2 to three transitory stops between Orange and Mylestom. We don’t believe these stops were of a explorative nature. The cunning plan was to get to Mylestom ASAP. On arrival at Mylestom the van was set up for several months, one might say permanently.
Very soon at Mylestom they spied the house of the their dreams; a low set, 2 bedroom, Besser block weekender that was and remains to this day painted blue.
In a quick and decisive manner not often seen in the Harvey genetic pool they searched and found the owner and made an unsolicited offer.
The rest is history. For the next 25 years they embedded themselves in the Mylestom community and became involved in just about every community organisation available. Bowls, Bush Fire Brigade, Church, Legacy, Meals on Wheels, the Local Community Centre, Local Progress Association, just to name a few.
Mum and Dad had a very strong community involvement ethic and now they had the time. They threw themselves in head first and as usual they were loved and respected.
In addition to community work they pursued hobbies such as the fantastic veggie garden, fishing, cake decorating, painting, copper art work, music and of course the grandchildren.
Their life had moved away from the Mullion community where they were well loved and respected but they had escaped from the hard relentless graft that produced very uncertain returns. They now had a life of a steady but adequate income from a pension that had been earned from paying their taxes and augmented by Dads service to the country during the war. They were in heaven and we, as a family were happy to see that all their years of work had paid off and they were enjoying the fruits of their labour.
Life could not get better for them; they were happy, secure, content and active. Life was beautiful.
So it was a terrible time when we as a family realised that Mum and Dad were struggling to maintain their idyllic Mylestom lifestyle. The years were catching up and their facilities were slowly falling away.
The problem here is subjective and we as a family we were torn on the subject. Was it time for them to move to somewhere where there was better facilities (medical, transport, shopping etc)? Unfortunately this decision is and will always be subjective and I don’t believe that you can ever get the timing right.
Anyway the decision to move to Marion Grove Retirement Village was made. This move was short lived before Mum broke her hip and inevitably Mum and Dad moved into Mater Christi the onsite Nursing Home (Aged Care Facility)
Around this time I moved to the Coffs Harbour region (Gleniffer) and got involved at Mater Christi as a volunteer. This time spent at Mater Christi probably contains some of my best memories. It was here I got to repay in a very small way the great debt I owed Mum and Dad and in the process learnt about the aging process and just how mortal we are, first hand.
I have some great stories from these years and I hope you enjoy them as much as me.