The November Spring morning shone through the stained-glass windows in the clerestory, bathing the congregation in a yellow light as they gathered in St Dominic’s Church, Camberwell. My uncle David spoke briefly prior to his sons’ eulogy for their mother Cindy, his wife, and my aunt. David reflected on a conversation he had with his mother-in-law, my grandmother, Dot Meagher, twenty-four years prior.
Amid the first winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, I mailed two drawings of a garden scene to my seven-year-old niece (one coloured in, the other black and white). I asked her to add to a story I started about fairies in the garden and requested that she colour the black and white picture and return it. We exchanged a few drawings and developed the fairy story before our collective effort fizzled out.
During the second winter of the pandemic, in-between lockdowns four and five, I unexpectedly received an email from my niece (via her mother’s inbox) with a word document attached and a simple message.
Letter to Jack Meagher from Maureen and Cynthia Meagher June 1952
Letter to Dorothy Meagher from Terence Meagher c.1950
Letter to Lux Meagher from Vincent Meagher 1911 (page 1)
Letter to Lux Meagher from Mary Meagher 1911 (page 1)
Letter to Lux Meagher from Vincent Meagher c.1910 (page 1)
Late last year, the Athenaeum Theatre advertised a stage production of Alice in Wonderland for children in January. When I saw the email in my inbox, I instantly thought with delighted relief, ‘Christmas presents for my nieces, sorted!’
Last month, I found a handwritten story in the archives written by my grandmother about her grandmother’s encounter with a bushranger in the 1870s. I could not resist sharing it for Women’s History Month! Dorothy Hogan Meagher (nee Donovan) was ‘Gran’ to me, ‘Dot’ to some of my cousins and ‘Doll’ to my father. She wrote this story in 1996, when she was eighty years old, about a recollection – a little tale of past history – for my mother who was doing family tree research.
When was the last time you did a jigsaw puzzle? The family archive in my spare room is the ultimate games room to me. Boxes upon boxes of various pieces waiting to be put together to create a new understanding of my family's collective history.
What Will Be looks back at people, places and travel and uncovers stories hidden in diaries, letters, and photos. It pieces together obvious clues and obscure details; reveals the personalities of people we used to know and those we could not have known; and re-tells the stories that have been forgotten or hidden. Tell me your thoughts and put a piece or two in the puzzle while you're at it.
