September 25, 2023
Would you believe it? Right here and now we are still living at Clarke Street, Benalla in the house which Bernadette and I had built for us in the year in which we were married some 57 years ago.
We had purchased a cheap block of land on the outskirts of Benalla for $750, and with the aid of finance of $8100 from the Benalla Co-operative Society we paid Ken Grant, our builder, the sum of $10,100 for the erection of a 12.2 square brick veneer home. A garage cost us an extra $250, and we moved in on 31st December 1967.
This was the one and only childhood “home” of our four children.
In the mid to late 1970’s we added a new family room and also purchased the block of land directly behind us. We later added a swimming pool.
In 1985 we had considered building a new home, but that idea had been scuttled by the actions of a fraudulent office manager. We settled for a refurbished kitchen.
RIGHT NOW, we are both fortunate to be healthy retirees. We have satisfied our travel appetites and COVID has put a halt to any further ideas.
Bernadette is still a playing member of the Benalla Golf Club and loves gardening and mowing the lawn. After a stint of 51 years, she has retired from delivering Meals on Wheels, and also her ‘Vinnie’s’ counselling. Being now in my nineties I am not so active. I ceased playing lawn bowls after fracturing my pelvis in 2014, after 60 odd years of competition and more than 700 games of pennant bowls. I am a ‘life member’ of the Bowling Club. My main activities are now Probus and U3A membership, where I am a regular in the ‘Singing for Fun’ group and the ‘As Time Goes By’ memoir writing group.
Also, being in my nineties, I am taking the time for reflection on the following:
I have regrets that I lost my mother to cancer when I was 4 years old, and so, have no knowledge of the love of my mother. At the same time, I generally lost contact with my five siblings and so did not grow up in a family environment …
In early 1940 my brother Pat enlisted in the army for World War 2 and went overseas to the battleground in the Middle East. He returned to Australia in 1943 and was discharged, medically unfit, in September 1944. He had visited me after his discharge, and to my everlasting regret, I did not know him and treated him as one would a stranger …
I also have regrets that, in my twenties, I boarded in country hotels and, to my detriment, succumbed to the ready availability of alcohol …
On the brighter side I recall that, through my hotel connections, I commenced playing lawn bowls at a young age, and have spent a very rewarding 60 years in that field …
From my early working life, my lot has been made brighter through meeting with the Hernan and Elliott families who both gave me the family life of which I had no prior experience …
In my late twenties, I became re-aquainted with my second brother John and his family and lived two of my happiest years with them …
1967 saw me marrying the love of my life, Bernadette, and commencing our own family of four children (of whom we are immensely proud) and our eleven adorable grandchildren …
In the late 1960’s, while working in Wodonga, I had occasion to visit a specialist who counselled me to “…study accountancy and work for yourself’. I am forever grateful to him, and, although some ten to twelve years later, I graduated, firstly with the Australian Society of Accountants, and secondly as a Chartered Accountant where I also obtained a ‘fellowship’...
I am also proud to say that these qualifications led to my business partnership as a Chartered Accountant …
Further to these two qualifications I have been awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for ‘Service to the Community of Benalla’ ...
And so, RIGHT HERE and RIGHT NOW, I feel contented and satisfied with my life. As I face the ultimate demise I do so at peace with the world and within myself.
Ray O’Shannessy
October 2023
Would you believe it? Right here and now we are still living at Clarke Street, Benalla in the house which Bernadette and I had built for us in the year in which we were married some 57 years ago.
We had purchased a cheap block of land on the outskirts of Benalla for $750, and with the aid of finance of $8100 from the Benalla Co-operative Society we paid Ken Grant, our builder, the sum of $10,100 for the erection of a 12.2 square brick veneer home. A garage cost us an extra $250, and we moved in on 31st December 1967.
This was the one and only childhood “home” of our four children.
In the mid to late 1970’s we added a new family room and also purchased the block of land directly behind us. We later added a swimming pool.
In 1985 we had considered building a new home, but that idea had been scuttled by the actions of a fraudulent office manager. We settled for a refurbished kitchen.
RIGHT NOW, we are both fortunate to be healthy retirees. We have satisfied our travel appetites and COVID has put a halt to any further ideas.
Bernadette is still a playing member of the Benalla Golf Club and loves gardening and mowing the lawn. After a stint of 51 years, she has retired from delivering Meals on Wheels, and also her ‘Vinnie’s’ counselling. Being now in my nineties I am not so active. I ceased playing lawn bowls after fracturing my pelvis in 2014, after 60 odd years of competition and more than 700 games of pennant bowls. I am a ‘life member’ of the Bowling Club. My main activities are now Probus and U3A membership, where I am a regular in the ‘Singing for Fun’ group and the ‘As Time Goes By’ memoir writing group.
Also, being in my nineties, I am taking the time for reflection on the following:
I have regrets that I lost my mother to cancer when I was 4 years old, and so, have no knowledge of the love of my mother. At the same time, I generally lost contact with my five siblings and so did not grow up in a family environment …
In early 1940 my brother Pat enlisted in the army for World War 2 and went overseas to the battleground in the Middle East. He returned to Australia in 1943 and was discharged, medically unfit, in September 1944. He had visited me after his discharge, and to my everlasting regret, I did not know him and treated him as one would a stranger …
I also have regrets that, in my twenties, I boarded in country hotels and, to my detriment, succumbed to the ready availability of alcohol …
On the brighter side I recall that, through my hotel connections, I commenced playing lawn bowls at a young age, and have spent a very rewarding 60 years in that field …
From my early working life, my lot has been made brighter through meeting with the Hernan and Elliott families who both gave me the family life of which I had no prior experience …
In my late twenties, I became re-aquainted with my second brother John and his family and lived two of my happiest years with them …
1967 saw me marrying the love of my life, Bernadette, and commencing our own family of four children (of whom we are immensely proud) and our eleven adorable grandchildren …
In the late 1960’s, while working in Wodonga, I had occasion to visit a specialist who counselled me to “…study accountancy and work for yourself’. I am forever grateful to him, and, although some ten to twelve years later, I graduated, firstly with the Australian Society of Accountants, and secondly as a Chartered Accountant where I also obtained a ‘fellowship’...
I am also proud to say that these qualifications led to my business partnership as a Chartered Accountant …
Further to these two qualifications I have been awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for ‘Service to the Community of Benalla’ ...
And so, RIGHT HERE and RIGHT NOW, I feel contented and satisfied with my life. As I face the ultimate demise I do so at peace with the world and within myself.
Ray O’Shannessy
October 2023
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