Iris May Lofting .....

It’s a sad time for us as we’ve heard that Marilyn’s mother passed away on Sunday evening. Marilyn is now on her way to Mudgee for the funeral service which will be held on Friday. Unfortunately, I’m not able to go. This photograph, taken about 5 years ago, shows Iris (on the right)with my mother who has been her friend since they first met in 1951. She and her husband ran a corner shop in the small town of Russell Vale which is where we first settled when we arrived in Australia. Iris was a florist and made the bouquet of flowers which Mum was given when she stepped off the ship.

Iris Lofting was 93 earlier this month. She moved to a nursing home soon after her 80th birthday and her health since then has not always been good. In her later years, she suffered from macular degeneration and was effectively blind. A number of times we have been told that she is ‘fading’ but her strong will has always brought her back. Her husband, Bill, always said he would be with her at the end and he was.

Iris was a 5th generation Australian who can trace her family back on her father’s side to her great-grandfather, William Chapman, who arrived in Sydney from England in 1841 on the ship Susan. His wife was Bridget Hayes from Tipperary. Iris’s grandmother was Elizabeth Campbell, who added her Scottish blood to the family.

Iris’s mother’s family can be traced back to George Waples who arrived in Tasmania in 1831 on the ship Strathfieldsay. George was a guard supervising convicts arriving at the penal colony. Later, he moved to the South Coast of NSW and established a farm at Mount Kembla.

Iris was working as a nurse when she met her husband-to-be who was serving in the Australian Army. They married and had 2 children, Anne and Marilyn. There is a picture attached of the young family at their home in Morton Street, Russell Vale. Iris’s parents, and brothers and sisters all had their homes within walking distance of each other. On the escarpment in the background is the South Bulli coal mine which provided work for many of the Chapman family.

Iris left instructions that she was to be cremated and her ashes brought back to Wollongong to be placed near those of her mother and father. She also asked for a particular piece of music to be played at her funeral. Thank goodness for iTunes which provided a choice of 50 versions of Beyond the Sunset for Jamie to download last night. We settled on the Pat Boone version which is suitably sentimental.