| On the 31st of
October, 1894 twins were born to Elise and Bobby. They were
Marie Gertrude Elise (left) and Marie Muriel Josephine.
Though separated by only a few
years, the twins grew up in a different time than their older
sisters. They came of age during World War I and the subsequent
"Roaring 20s." Luckily, they missed corsets and crinolines and
the hours spent dressing and fixing hair. They went to the
barber and had their tresses bobbed, they put soot on their
eyelids and rubbed dampened red ribbon on their lips. They wore
their skirts at a length which their elder sisters had to give up at 14.
These were thoroughly modern girls!
Gertrude fell for
a handsome young English soldier, John Edward Sullivan (1st January 1894
- 24th November 1922), at the onset of World War I and spent a
mere two weeks with him before he was shipped off to North
Africa. She spent the War years as a young mother still in her
parents home. Jack finally returned home and two more children
were born but tragically Jack died from an illness contracted in
Egypt three months before his youngest child was born.
The beautiful
young widow had many suitors over the years but missed her Jack
and never remarried. All her life Gertrude was a mother and
grandmother first and foremost. She was the one who could "kiss
and make better" everything from skinned knees to broken hearts,
for her own children and grandchildren and those of her siblings
and even the siblings themselves.
Gertrude died on
2nd October 1983 just weeks before her 89th birthday.
Gertrude and Jack
had three children, Daryl John Douglas, 18th Feb 1916-5th Feb
2003; Moya Gertrude, 31st July 1921-11th July 1994 and Owen
Edward, 23rd Feb 1923 - |
