Friday, 22nd October …..

It’s been good to see Marilyn’s father looking so well. It is almost as if he has gained a new lease on life now that he has been relieved of the responsibility of his wife who passed away in July. He has re-started his daily physiotherapy to strengthen his muscles and has re-gained his normal cheerful, optimistic manner. The nursing home has found an electric wheelchair for him and that makes him more independent.

Like many older people, he reflects on the past and reminisces on happy times. He has led an interesting life and his stories are fascinating. Marilyn decided we would buy a little voice recorder so that these memories would not be lost. She thought that we would just surreptitiously put it on the table beside him rather than draw attention to it and, perhaps, inhibit his conversation.

He noticed it at once. ‘What’s that?’ he asked. ‘Just my new phone,’ says Marilyn, and it does look a bit like a small mobile phone. Nothing else was said until later when he remembered a name he wanted to tell us about.

‘You can tell that thing that’s not a phone that the man’s name was Bone.’ He might be 90 years old but not much slips by.

Bill’s father, Hilary, was the oldest son of an English family and trained as a Quantity Surveyor. A younger brother was Hugh Lofting who wrote the Dr Dolittle books. Hilary was also literary and worked as a journalist and author when he came to Australia. The family’s lifestyle was very bohemian and Bill, also christened Hilary, left home at 14 to work as a jackeroo. Many of his stories are of this period of his life. He tells Marilyn he would like to write a book which he wants to call, Making a Quid in the Depression. His nom de plume would be Larry Lofting which is the name he was known by at that time.

He met Iris during World War II and they married in 1942. His life changed dramatically when he was absorbed into Iris’s family, who looked askance at his bohemian background and encouraged him to become a sound, conservative citizen and pillar of the church.

Bill’s life story has so many elements of the changes that took place in Australia in the 20th century. His family knew the great artists and authors of the time: Norman Lindsay, Marcus Clarke, and so on. He lived through the depression and WWII and has seen his daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren make their way in the world.