My uncle Ron may be loved by his family: I don’t know. But I know that his sister considered him a nasty piece of work. That is the impression I get when I talk to her. Her view has not changed over the years.
Ron is my mother’s only sibling, born two years before her. He was very intelligent, quick, good at maths and had a facility with languages. Sounds a bit like me. Perhaps that is where my intelligence comes from (they say your intellect comes from your mother). He did not do particularly well at school, perhaps because he had no incentive and was bored. His parents did not believe in homework and never pushed or even encouraged their children. Ron ran wild most of the time he was not at school.
He teased my mother unmercifully, often until she had an asthma attack - which was not called asthma; however it must have been obvious to Ron that my mother was in distress. It sounded like he was a sadist. He often deliberately got her into trouble.
He left school fairly early and joined the Railways, climbing the ranks and eventually becoming the head of the Southern area, based in Wollongong. He married fairly young and had 3 children. However he also gambled, and in the end got himself into deep water with the criminal class and managed to get knee-capped when he was about 50. This left him with severe arthritis in his knees and he was a semi-cripple for the latter part of his life.
He divorced his first wife Elaine, to marry again, in his fifties, an accountant, if I remember correctly.
I have only met my cousins once, and his son I considered a smarty pants when I met him. This son now lives about 10 minutes from us in Menai but I have never met him and wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him. Certainly he has never tried to get in touch with us; and considering my parents have lived in the same house for 45 years, that is saying something.
For a while I had a phone relationship with his firs wife, but gave up in the end – they are too conventional for me.
Ron is my mother’s only sibling, born two years before her. He was very intelligent, quick, good at maths and had a facility with languages. Sounds a bit like me. Perhaps that is where my intelligence comes from (they say your intellect comes from your mother). He did not do particularly well at school, perhaps because he had no incentive and was bored. His parents did not believe in homework and never pushed or even encouraged their children. Ron ran wild most of the time he was not at school.
He teased my mother unmercifully, often until she had an asthma attack - which was not called asthma; however it must have been obvious to Ron that my mother was in distress. It sounded like he was a sadist. He often deliberately got her into trouble.
He left school fairly early and joined the Railways, climbing the ranks and eventually becoming the head of the Southern area, based in Wollongong. He married fairly young and had 3 children. However he also gambled, and in the end got himself into deep water with the criminal class and managed to get knee-capped when he was about 50. This left him with severe arthritis in his knees and he was a semi-cripple for the latter part of his life.
He divorced his first wife Elaine, to marry again, in his fifties, an accountant, if I remember correctly.
I have only met my cousins once, and his son I considered a smarty pants when I met him. This son now lives about 10 minutes from us in Menai but I have never met him and wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him. Certainly he has never tried to get in touch with us; and considering my parents have lived in the same house for 45 years, that is saying something.
For a while I had a phone relationship with his firs wife, but gave up in the end – they are too conventional for me.
The photo shows my mother aged 15 with her brother aged 17
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