​It is with some regret that I admit to having lived 90 years with the feeling of envy.  Envy that I never experienced the love of a mother or the enjoyment of a family life with my five siblings.
 
I was the youngest of the family and my mother died when I was 4 years old.
 
My father was an alcoholic and his sisters determined that he could not adequately care for his family.
 
Consequently my 6 years old brother, Basil, and I were packed off to Villa Maria in Ballarat East. I always regarded Villa as a home for the disadvantaged, even though it was gazetted as a boys’ boarding school.
 
We both remained until grade 8 when we received our “Merit Certificates”. We had not enjoyed our time at Villa. The nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, did not live up to the title of “mercy”.
 
School holidays were spent with Uncle Ned and Aunty Mary Caine at Swanwater. Mary was Dad’s sister, but never showed us any affection. On the other hand, Uncle Ned was a loving man.
 
On receiving my Merit Certificate in 1944 I was deemed to be too small to enter the work force and, living at Caine’s, went to the Swanwater North State school to re-do grade 8 and sit for a scholarship. I was successful and the scholarship entitled me to tutorial and accommodation at St. Patrick’s College, also in Ballarat, where I obtained my “Leaving Certificate”.
 
On leaving the college, I got a job with the Stock and Station firm of Victorian Producers Co-Op (VPC). My first posting was to Benalla, where I became acquainted with the Hernan family, comprising John and Francie and their 7 children. They gave me the “home” which I had never known. Also, the Elliots, who put on a “surprise” birthday party for me on my 21st.
 
I worked for 17 years with the VPC, spent at Benalla (1950 - 1955) St.Arnaud (1955 - 1958) Wodonga (1958 - 1961)  Melbourne Head Office (1961 - 1963) Benalla (1963 - 1967).
 
In St. Arnaud and Wodonga I boarded in hotels.  I succumbed to the ready availability of alcohol and, to my detriment, became a regular drinker. However, I retained my strong work ethic.
 
On the bright side, I joined the Wodonga Bowling Club and have been a lawn bowler, now, for over 60 years.
 
While in Melbourne I was reunited with my older brother John.  I lived the happiest years of my life, up till then, with John and his family.  The exception was that  I suffered multiple internal injuries, a depressed fracture of the skull and brain damage in a motor accident. I still bear the scars.
 
On returning to Benalla, I became re-acquainted with Bernadette and married her in 1967.  We built our own home and raised 4 wonderful children who all graduated at university and are now successful in their chosen fields. We have 11 grandchildren.
 
Now I have the family life which I sorely missed as a child.
 
Also, in 1967 I changed jobs, and, after intensive study, I entered a business partnership as a Chartered Accountant. The partnership survived a fraudulent office manager, and the 1993 floods, and prospered.
 
In 1971 Bernadette and I purchased the Benalla Coin Laundrette as an extension to our business interests. We sold it in 1988 after an interesting 17 years.  In 1986 we, together with four other parties, formed the River Gums Estate syndicate which developed and sold 150 residential blocks in the south-eastern corner of Benalla.
 
Regrettably, in the 1970s I mourned the deaths of my two best friends, Kevin Hernan and Bill Keenan.
 
I retired from business in the year 2000 and became more intense in my community involvement, resulting in an Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list of 2013, “For service to the community of Benalla”.
 
Over a lifetime we have enjoyed holidays and travel in every state and territory of Australia.  In retirement we went on 6 Pacific Island and New Zealand cruises and travelled overseas to the British Isles, Europe, Scandinavia and St. Petersburg.
 
I continued my involvement with the Benalla bowling club, where I am a “life member”, and the Rotary Club where I am a “Paul Harris Fellow” and an “honorary member”.
 
U3A and Probus have played important roles in my retirement, and I am gradually easing out.
 
In May 2022 I celebrated my 90th birthday and now I relax in contentment, and am constantly aware of, and accept, my own mortality.
 
It has, indeed, been a long - and fulfilling - life.
​
 
Ray O’Shannessy      
September 2022

I was four years old when I lost my mother to cancer. My father was an alcoholic who lost his farm to the bank. From then on, he was rarely in my life. Despite this poor start my life has been blessed.

How can it be so?  Let me tell you.

​My father’s sister held a position of authority within the Mercy Order of Catholic nuns in Ballarat. She was Mother Augustine in the Ballarat head- quarters of the Order. In addition to having several Convents within regional Victoria the nuns also conducted a boy’s primary boarding school/home called Villa Maria   in the countryside just outside of Ballarat East. Although it has never been confirmed to me, I believe Mother Augustine exercised her significant influence to provide me with accommodation and tutorial for a period of eight years, (my primary schooling), at little or no cost.

Although I did not appreciate it at the time, this was a great blessing. I was unappreciative because, due to my experiences, I believed then, and now, that nuns are of a differing breed. I found them to be not loving people and to be very strict and severe. I hated every day at Villa and used to refer to it as jail. Nevertheless, the nuns carried out their duties and provided the kids with a home and a good education. This, to me, had to be a blessing.

In 1945 another of dad’s sisters provided me with the opportunity to win a scholarship which again provided me with accommodation and secondary education for four years at the more friendly environment of St. Patrick’s College, also in Ballarat. Another blessing!

On completion of my education, Dad’s brother obtained for me a job which I held for seventeen years with Victorian Producers Co-Op (VPC).  In my later years with VPC I had occasion to visit a neurologist in Wagga Wagga who counselled me to “study accountancy and work for yourself”.  Accordingly, I commenced study by correspondence, and, after a grinding six years, I graduated as a member of the Australian Society of Accountants. Then, after another stint of correspondence schooling I graduated and obtained a fellowship in the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

I then became a partner in the accounting practice of Smith O’Shannessy, and so commenced a satisfying and rewarding career. Surely, a blessing.

I met and befriended Norm Matthews who invited me to invest in and become the Secretary of a property development group. Over a period of thirty years we developed and marketed one hundred and fifty home building blocks. This proved to be a very rewarding venture.

Over a period of some sixty years I played and enjoyed lawn bowls. I was a member of the Benalla Bowls Club and participated in more than seven hundred games of pennant bowls. I was in a number of winning premiership teams.

I also became an active Rotarian for thirty-five satisfying years and am a Paul Harris Fellow.
In 1967 I married the love of my life, Bernadette Cooke. We have four wonderful children who all graduated at University and have distinguished careers. There are also ten adoring grandchildren. How blessed we are.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2013, I was presented with an Order of Australia Medal. OAM.

All in all, I can boast that I have lived a blessed life.


Ray O’Shannessy    
8 October 2020