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Shazzy reckoned that the lady with the cane bag standing to the left of the boot's toe is probably her mummy, Pammy; but as I received this message on my mobile phone whilst I was in town, I wasn't quite so sure - I hadn't seen Pammy without a walking aid for far too many years, as it turned out. (If you inspect the properties of the picture, you will see that I labelled it as 'Maybe Pammy'.)
It wasn't until I got home and downloaded the picture onto my PC that I soon realised that it was, indeed, my sweet Pammy. Standing next to her, with her back turned, is 5yo Shazzy and Pammy is no doubt carefully watching our 3 to 4yo Jeni, playing somewhere behind the shoe, as only a truly caring mother would.
The year was round about 1980 and the venue was the Glenoyd Poultry Farm that used to exist between Cureton Ave and 7th Street, in Mildura. It belonged to relatives of my friend and brass band colleague, Craig Beasy.
Jeni (our youngest daughter) commented that the girl waving from the shoe's upper window might be Ali Cupper - a thought which pleased me no end, because Ali is also a friend and colleague of mine. Sadly, Ali is not quite so sure, but doesn't deny that it might well be her. She jokes that the stiff-armed wave looks more like a Hitler salute - maybe so, but as a child she would have had no such knowledge. Poor Ali (or whoever it is), to have her arm reaching out over a relatively high window bar (relative to her shoulder height that is), it would be hard for her to have her arm any other way but straight. Maybe I'll never get to know who that girl really is, but the thought that I know most of the individuals appearing in this 'lost' picture, somehow pleases me.
Pammy would have been about 30-31yo and still some years away from being diagnosed with MS. Indeed, she may have had no symptoms at all, way back then. What the next 35 years would show is precisely the reason as to why I initially wrote this blog.
My love for her is absolutely undying...
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