week 10: Strong women

Strength can take on a myriad of facets.

 

My initial thought was immediately of my mother Edna Rose O'MALLEY (1935-2008). I have always said she was a woman before her time and I hold fast to that belief, after all the facts speak for themselves.
An only child of a mother who was often bedridden, inflicted with asthma and it would appear mental health issues; and a father who was pensioned off from the railways early due to ill health, she always spoke of her happy childhood. Her disappointment with life came with the harsh reality that not all men were as good as her father, her 3 failed marriages bore witness to that and the fact she would not accept 'a womans lot' as her own.  She always believed that with hard work she could achieve anything she set her sights on.
That attitude set her on a path of butting heads with officialdom for most of her life; from running away from an abusive marriage as a pregnant 20 year with a toddler to keep child welfare from taking one or the other of her babies, to working 3 jobs to solely support her three children and invalid widowed father, or fighting tooth and nail as a single mother for the right to raise a mortgage to buy her own home... my mother bucked the system continually before womans rights were even considered or womans liberation became a catchphrase.

 





My thoughts then turned to my paternal grandmother Phyllis Olive GREENFIELD (1904-1962), she endured a sad and lonely life. The seventh child whose mother died when she was only 13 months old, her father remarried and although happy family photos exist of her younger half-siblings, there doesn't appear to be any reference to Phyllis' childhood. Her unhappy marriage ended only upon the death of her abusive spouse. This woman displayed a strength of a different type to deal with her situation for her childrens sake. http://corrinne-kiwicolleen.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/phyllis-olive-greenfield-1904-1962.html



 



The strength of pioneer/victorian women is undeniable- they regularly faced and/or were confronted by gender specific issues. Childbirth and spousal abuse often left them in precarious and life-threatening situations. Colonising the antipodes further introduced mortality and livelihood issues.

I salute these women, my direct ancestors, responsibile for providing a better life for us, their descendants, at the cost of their own lives.



Mary Jane ANNETT (1835-1869) died at age 34 from tuberculosis in the new settlement of Oamaru, New Zealand. Her short life was colourful, and it would appear from known facts undertones, at times tragic. http://corrinne-kiwicolleen.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/mary-jane-annett-c1835-1869.html. She was quite possibly an illegitimate child who travel from Ireland to Canada before and returning to England to emmigrate to Australia and finally New Zealand to reside in primative conditions which surely exacerbated respiratory conditions.

Eliza FOARD (1831-1876) died young due to birth complications outlined in the inquest into her death http://corrinne-kiwicolleen.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/eliza-foard-1831-1876.html

Isabella MILES (1861-1906) the wife of Eliza's son also succoming to horrific post-partum issues- cause of death noted as i) deciduoma malignoma (an intrauterine mass of decidual tissue, probably the result of hyperplasia of decidual cells retained in the uterus after parturition, also called placentoma) and ii) Pyaemia  (a diseased state in which pyogenic bacteria are circulating in the blood, characterized by the development of abscesses in various organs.)