Category: Marg McCrohan

'This (Retirement) Life' - Marg McCrohan

23/10/2022

In June 2007 my husband and I decided to retire and leave Melbourne behind. We had already purchased a house on two acres in 2000. The property was about eight kilometres beyond Tatong towards Tolmie, and we had planned this to be our last move. We had planted trees in the bare hilly paddock and the garden was a work in progress. The location was idyllic, being surrounded by farmland and the Holland Creek, across the road from us, which supplied us with water. Our neighbours were welcoming and so we settled down to a quiet life. Unfortunately, my mother became seriously ill in Ireland and so a quick trip to see her was organised. I was fortunate to spend her last few days with her and to attend her funeral before returning home.

We then set about seeing some more of our own back yard. This involved a trip on the Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin, with a stop off in Alice Spring so we could visit Uluru. No, we didn't climb the Rock but circled it by foot. This trip inspired us to plan a camping expedition up through the Centre and down the West Coast.

We made a few trips overseas to catch up with family and visit new countries, as well as old favourites such as Paris.

In between we continued living in the quiet rural surrounds, with shopping trips to Benalla and occasional outings to Swanpool Cinema. We were content with our lot, until I got the Volunteer bug and joined the crew at Vinnies.

Unfortunately, we also aged. My arthritic hands made gardening a painful chore and not the pleasure it had been. Thus, we decided to sell our property. We made the decision to move to the coast and ended up in Portarlington. At the time there was only a small permanent population, and we were surrounded by empty houses, which was a gentle introduction to urban living. Of course, over the summer the population swelled, and life became more hectic. With ongoing development increasing in pace, we decided to head back to Benalla. However, this time, we settled in the town.

Now, several years later, we are well settled into retirement. There is time to take up causes, whether by writing to politicians, joining protests or visiting people in detention. Between Volunteering, U3A and ‘life in general’, I often wonder how I managed to fit employment into my schedule. Yes, I do have a garden but on a smaller more manageable scale.

To me retirement has been a wonderful surprise. I had wondered if it would be boring. Instead, each day is a gift to be cherished.

Marg McCrohan
October 2022

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'This (fortunate) Life'

25/10/2021

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A Fortunate Life (Apologies to A. B. Facey)

I have been gifted a fortunate life. I was born in 1944 and was thus too young to be aware of World War 2 or the rationing that took place for some years after. I was the second child, which means the parents had a chance at parenting prior to my arrival.

My first memories of family life were in Romsey, Victoria, where my father was the local doctor. We lived there until I was eight, by which stage I was one of six children. Life was good. We had our own pony to ride and the local primary school, where I started my schooling, was a short walk away. My maternal grandmother was a regular visitor and a maternal aunt lived on a large sheep property a few miles distant.

In December 1952, the whole family boarded a ship to Italy as my father had decided to live in Ireland. We spent a short time in Rome, then went to Ireland via Paris. My mother was pregnant with number seven child and my father was determined that the child should be born in Ireland. This would enable them to buy property in the child's name. This did not eventuate as there was insufficient work for my father to support his growing family and he worked in Europe whilst also furthering his medical studies. This allowed us to remain in rural Ireland where we continued a relatively relaxed life. It was here we all got bicycles so we could not only ride to the local primary school, but also the five miles to the nearest secondary schools. We also took up tennis and played in various local tournaments.

In mid-1956 the family returned to Australia as my father was employed in Tasmania for a few months prior to moving to NSW. There we lived on Lake Macquarie at Coal Point from where we travelled to Newcastle for our secondary schooling. This idyllic life, where we swam, fished and mucked about in a dinghy, came to an abrupt end when, once more we moved. This time it was to Melbourne where, fortunately, the older four of us remained to finish our education. My last two years were spent at boarding school, but once again my maternal relatives came to the rescue and looked after us during the school holidays.

Education was a high priority with my parents, so I was able to attend Melbourne University before starting my working career as a biochemist at Wimmera Base Hospital, Horsham. I remained there for two years before my marriage and return to Melbourne. After our first child was born, we lived in Ireland for eighteen months, where our second child was born. We returned to Melbourne where two boys joined our two girls. In 1977 we moved to Euroa prior to buying a property out of Benalla.

We have moved a few more times, but now we are back to stay.

As you can see, I have had a fortunate life. Firstly, I was born into a large family which meant that regardless of our moves we had an inbuilt support group. We are all blessed with good genes and all ten of us are still living. My own family has also enjoyed good health and more importantly, been endowed with

‘A Good Sense of Humour’,

an essential ingredient for

‘A Fortunate Life’.

Marg McCrohan,
October 2021

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'This (...) Life'

"This (....) Life". The brief? " Submit a 500 word story of own choice, a story important to you, a story you have often wanted to write about. After writing the story, develop a title for it using the title 'This (......) Life". It might be something like, "This (inspiring) Life", "This (entitled) Life", "This (serendipitous) Life" or ‘This (downsizing) Life’, A recent story in the Australian* was titled - ‘This (Number 8) Life’ - a story about growing up as ‘Number 8’ in a family of nine children.'

'This (...) Life' has been the topic for October since 2020 when the Pandemic caused the demise of the Benalla Festival's Writing Competition.

*The topic 'This (...) Life' draws on the concept behind the Weekend Australian's column which publishes stories submitted by readers.

'This (Retirement) Life' - Marg McCrohan

'This (fortunate) Life'

'This (...) Life'

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