Mum – Nancy (Laura Annie) Braggs
Nee McQuaigue - Born 14th April 1913
Nancy was born in London – Lived in Lewisham and 77 Harrington Road, Sth Norwood and had 5 siblings:
Jack -- Fred – Roy – Mally – Stan
Father: John McQuaigue – Engineer – worked in Russia before the revolution. When the revolution started it was not a safe place to be so he booked a ticket on a ship home. The 1st ship he was supposed to come back on was sunk so he arrived home safely on the 2nd ship.
Mother: Laura Jubel Lewis
From Lewisham they moved to Deptford. Boats used to go under the bridge here.
Grandfather: ……….. McQuaigue - Born Castlebar, Northern Ireland, Moved to England and was a sergeant at South Norwood near Croydon.
Stories told by Mum:
I was quite a character in my younger days. One day my grandmother caught me doing cartwheels and showing my drawers, grandmother said I was a disgrace to the family. Father thought this amusing and no more was said.
One day at school, Elma was asked to keep an eye on the pupils while the teacher went to the office. Elma put my name down as talking. I did not talk and chased Elma home after school and “did her in on the front porch”
Later that night at dinner, dad asked me to pass the salt and pepper, I had had a bad day and told him to get it himself, he chased me up the stairs to give me a belting, mum yelled out “don’t you hurt her she has been in enough trouble today”
Another time with Elma (she lived next door) was always talking about how good she was at school. Mum asked why she was getting all the good marks, I answered that I got good marks too. A ball went over the fence and I asked if Elma if she could get the ball, she said no. I climbed the fence, got my foot caught and fell over, right on to the hothouse, I was not popular that day and dad had to come and get me out of the mess.
I decided after all this that I did not like any girl called Elma.
My first job was in a factory machining. Mum got me the job. I arrived home early one day, mum asking why was I home, I said I quit. I was fed up with the job and the light was bad.
I had another job in book binding, I liked this work, it was interesting.
My next job was at the Croydon Aerodrome, it is now wartime. Again the light was bad and I had a headache. I left early and my brother Roy came with me. The lady down the road called out when I was outside later in the day “you lucky bugger” asking her why she said that, itwas because the factory had been bombed later in the afternoon after I had left.
How lucky was I.
I cannot remember the year, but it was when the Crystal Palace burnt down. Bill, who lived across the road, knocked on our door and said, “quick, the Palace is on fire, jump on the handlebars and I will dink you down”. When we got there it was all ablaze, the two Princes were there watching and looking unhappy. The fire was started with underground gas.
I have now met your father. I was not really interested in Len at first but he was nice. We got married in 1935 on Boxing Day.
I found out later that the man across the road, a very good friend wanted to marry me, this is why he did not come to my wedding, his name was Bill Bines. It was a short while later that he and Len became friends.
I later got another job working for the railways. It was at Pearly station. I had to call the trains over the loud speaker and let everyone know where the next train would be stopping.
I worked with 3 men in the signal box. One of the men’s wives came to work to check me out, ha, ha. There was nothing going on.
Near the end of the war Len and I decided we did not want to live in England anymore. Both our parents had passed on and my siblings that I had looked after were now all grown and on their own. We decided in 1947 that we would go to Australia. We saved up our money, sold our house and most of our furniture and boarded the Strathaird in 1948.
We arrived in Melbourne and moved into a Nissan hut. Len found some land in Kinross Street, Moorabin. Len was a good builder, taught himself architecture and designed our first house.
After a few years, Len’s brother and sister in law moved out here, we sponsored them. Then another brother and his wife came over, they went on to Adelaide. Some years on again, my brothers, Fred and Stan and then Roy and his wife came over.
In 1952 Susanne was born and in 1954 Stephen was born. Len was restless and we both decided that we would like a more rural place to live, it was then that we bought Strathewen, 77 acres of land with two creeks running through, one was Chad's Creek and I cannot remember the other one. We sold Moorabbin and moved to Strathewen in late 1954. Len had built a hut for us to live in and was designing a house to build.
It was cosy using a couple of wardrobes as a room divider. One room for cooking and living in and the other to sleep in. It was here that I lost my wedding ring down the drain. Len dug and dug but we never found it.
Len worked away as a builder for the Education Department, he was gone from 7am till about 6pm and it was a little lonely. The neighbours were good to me. We met a lovely family who lived a few properties over from us, the Rankin's. We often walked over for dinner, taking Susanne and Stephen, Len often had to carry Stephen on his shoulders on the way home and we had the Tilley light to guide our way. The children enjoyed this way of life with Susanne starting at the primary school when she was 4. Not all day, I would drop her off when I walked down to the post office, one and half miles, to pick up mail and bread. We had our own cow now that I learnt to milk, her name was Judy. We then got another one, Daisy cow and a beautiful little red bull. The Rankin’s used to borrow our bull, they would walk over, and lead him back. You could put a halter on him and lead him anywhere. Len's heart was broken when he found him dead, he had got his head caught in a forked tree, we missed him dearly. As Susanne got older she started going to school on most days, often being picked up by the Rankin’s riding Rosie, a draught horse. We would meet them up the road by a big stump, I would lift her up on to the stump and Allan or Billy would lift her onto the horse. There would often be 4 or 5 riding her the rest of the way to school, 1 ½ miles, those were good days. Stephen used to grizzle and ask why he could not go, he used to want to walk but I learnt to take the pusher with me as he always got tired and I could not carry him. The McKimmie's sometimes got led to school on top of their dairy cow, sitting on sacks. The school was one room with all grades in here, the teacher was lovely.
I started getting lonely and had a couple of frights when some gypsies knocked on the door one day, I sent the kids outside and they hid under the bungalow, thankfully they did not stay long. We also had a couple of bushfires.
It was then that Len found a job through the education department looking for a caretaker at Mont Albert Central School. Len took us all to the interview and was contacted soon after that he had the job. This was 1958. We had to sell our cows before we moved, the truck arrived to pick them up but Judy laid on the ground with tears rolling down her face and would not go on the truck, this upset me dearly and we all started crying. Judy was just like a member of the family. I will never forget the day when she walked up behind Stephen and picked him up, she had horns like a hallo and she just stood there holding him in the air, I thought she had gone mad so I told Susanne to get into the house, Stephen was always a noisy boy, often yelling out all the time. Slowly Judy let him down and I took him into the house. I found out later that cows do not like noise, so this was why she did what she did. Stephen never talked much after that when we went down to the shed to milk, when he heard me calling Judy, Judy he would close his little trap.
Len had already started to build a house, it was nearly to lock up stage. We did not sell the farm but went back there on weekends. Mr. Robinson who lived over on the farm behind us had horses, the children used to go over to visit him and he let them ride the horses, I never knew for a while that they were doing this and found out later that he had bought the horses from a market and that they had never been ridden. Susanne and Stephen often brought friends up with them and they would all go over there to ride the horses. He had 500 acres and the horses had to be caught by my children before they could ride them, he never had them in a smaller paddock, so when he sold them they were well trained horses. They used to ride them all over the district. The children loved the farm and as they got older we had our own horses there for them to ride.
Time passes, the children are teenagers and we thought that they had lost interest in the farm and sold it, I did not know that it was a wrong decision but Susanne finally got back to the bush after many years of trying.
We stayed in Inglisby Road, Mont Albert for about 12 years. I do remember one birthday party, I had made a cake and I was telling everyone how I used to do handstands and cartwheels. I did a handstand in the kitchen, my wrist gave way and I fell sideways landing on the cake. It went flying but Mildred our dog at the time woofed in to clean it up. I laughed so much even though it hurt. So many stories but I cannot remember them all. We bought a house at 11 Ferris Street, Box Hill North to renovate. Len and I retired from Mont Albert Central and went into buying houses and doing them up, we enjoyed working together. From here we moved to Beaufort Road, Croydon West where we enjoyed living and having lovely neighbours, John and Val Caird. They were so good to us and I enjoyed their company. We had also bought a big house in St Kilda to do up and let out rooms. This was in Barkly Street, I wonder what it would be worth now. We started to frequent the auction rooms for carpet and other fittings. I went back to England 3 times, once with Stan for a holiday and 1n 1972 Len and I both went. Susanne and Stephen were both working at this time.
From here we moved around the corner to Edith Avenue. What a move it proved to be, we had our ute and trailer, Susanne had a panel van and trailer, Stephen had his vehicle and trailer and we had friends of theirs with a truck and trailer and others who I cannot remember.
The new neighbours were astounded and this is when Len got known as Steptoe. It was while we were living here that both my children got married in the year 1977.
Some years later it all became a bit too much with travelling to and fro to St Kilda and we decided to sell St Kilda and Croydon. This proved very difficult for Len as he had to part with everything that was in the shed and yard. I remember us loading the trailer up with more stuff and Susanne would ask dad in for a cuppa, while he was inside she would head off to the auction rooms to unload. We had to do this because when Sue (I call her Sue now as this is how she is know to everyone) and I came inside we would see Len taking things out and putting them back in the shed.
We moved to Albert Hill Rd, Lillydale, it was a lovely house but the neighbours weren't.
We stayed here till 1982, about 3 years. Sue took us for a drive to Rye one day for an outing, this is where we used to go for holidays when the children were younger. We looked at some estate agents as we were never out of the habit of doing that. We had an agent give us some address' to look at. We went back and asked if we could be shown through some and that day we bought 24 Monte Vista Court, Rye.
Stan moved in with us for a while. I now have my drivers license, I am not sure what the rest of the family thought about this, I was 72 when I got it, took a few shots at the tests too. I never told anyone about the little accidents that I had until years later. A couple of years on we bought a house in Bruce Street, Rye. This was to do up, well so father thought at the time. Sue lived there for a little over a year during which she had Len stay with her for a few months. Len was now showing signs of dementia and I was at my wits end so a holiday with Sue at the other house was to give me and Stan a break.
Father came home and it was only a short while later that he passed away from a stroke, this was 1985. I missed Len. I did another trip back to England with a friend a year later.
I have had a wonderful life, more ups than downs with the family but that is how it goes I suppose.
I especially loved times when Sue and Steve were at home and they had all their friends over too, they were good times with lots of laughter
I wish to thank you all for coming to celebrate my 100th birthday, I have waited 100 years to get this letter from the Queen and now I have it.
I am happy that I have my family still with me and not to far away, except for that Susanne who lives where it is cold in winter and my nose would freeze. I did like it when I went to stay there though.
My Brother, Stan
My Daughter, Susanne and Partner Wayne, her daughter, Tracy and her two sons, Matthew and Samuel
My Son, Stephen and his wife Leanne, their Children, Michael and Erin with her husband Ryan and two girls, Chloe and Olivia
From Eva,
OMG!!! Well I know she will hang on because she is waiting for that privilege. I don’t know what stories you are looking at but what about the time she went to pat Daisybelle who was sleeping on my bed and she nearly took her hand off Daisybelle was your mum's dog………..! Now my memory is going………. Was it her or your dad that had a go at me for dismantling the carby on the armchair even though I/you had newspaper under it.
That amongst other snippets are my fondest memories especially when Steve and I spilt up.
Eva has remained a friend of the family since those days at Beaufort Rd, Croydon.
Being able to read her birthday cards at 96 without glasses…………. Bloody hell, no hope for me now. Can’t even see the TV without them……………..
"100 years" of memories and 100 years of life…
You are very special and surely honor is due
for all the great experiences that life has given you.
You've done more in a lifetime than others can only dream,
and you are the most amazing 100 year old that most have ever known or seen!
Happy birthday!
Mum
All my love to you
from
Sue
This is the song that Mum often sings and that I sing with her when we are in the car parked at the beach.
Sung by Gracie Fields
Steve, Leanne and family
Barb and Wayne Dyer
Ralph and Carol Evans
John and Val Caird
Michael, Alana and Mum
Mum and me
Mum and Ralda
Mum with Ryan, Erin, Olivia and Chloe
Theresa, Stan, Mum with Steve and Chloe
Mum with Sam, Tracy and Matt
Sadley in July 2014 we lost our beautiful mother.
Gone to meet up with dad and all the gang.
Love you mum
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