Memories of relatives

MEMORIES OF RELATIVES

Peter Bright

A FAMILY TREE HISTORY

DORIS and BRUCE DULIN

In the days of our childhood, Aunty Dot and Uncle Bruce lived at number 81 Cobham Avenue, just a few houses down the road from the Bright family at number 94 in the residential Sydney suburb, of West Ryde.

We cousins could visit each other regularly and Roger and I would happily play in Roger’s sandpit. When Roger came to my home we’d often blow pretty bubbles with our bubble-pipes and sometimes dig underground cubbies in the backyard.

On those weekend occasions when I visited Roger, Uncle Bruce would usually be mowing the lawns with a push mower or attending to his vegetable patch out back while Aunty Dot was inside their brick home busy with the usual run of domestic chores.

Aunty Dot was a fine woman and a good mother to Roger, Anthony and finally Lucia, and a loyal wife to Uncle Bruce.

Aunty as a young woman had a background in mental health care and for a time was a nurse at the Callan Park lunatic asylum. I suspect it was here that she became somewhat intolerant of nonsense while Hazel, my dear mother, was gentler. I still remember the embarrassment I felt when as an early teenager Aunty Dot attended my bedside and used her nurse’s training to give me an enema for worms, which, in the circumstances, duly appeared. There are some things in life that one does not readily forget!

Uncle Bruce was a fine, gentle and handsome man of immaculate morality. He was a very keen student of Christian Science and active in that movement, eventually becoming First Reader at the Ryde church. My mother took up Christian Science through this contact with Uncle Bruce and eventually became a First Reader herself at the Nelson church in New Zealand.

Uncle Bruce was, as I recall, always employed in the insurance industry as a travelling salesman, and his was the first in our family group in those early years to acquire a car which of course greatly assisted him in this role. This vocational and family asset gave my young cousin Roger an excellent opportunity to learn about cars, an interest he maintained into his teenage years when he worked as a diligent casual employee in local petrol stations and later as a vehicle mechanic in his apprenticeship. It is likely that Uncle Bruce imbued Roger with the principles of good money management, something that served Roger very well lifelong.

Hearing of some teenage financial difficulties, Uncle Bruce once gave me a Ten pound note at a time when the weekly adult wage was double that. I was amazed at this kindness and when I raised the matter of payback he demurred, saying he’d prefer that I simply circulated the benefit. That graciousness has never been forgotten.

My car less family was always grateful when the Dulin family invited me to travel with them to Sydney’s northern beaches. We always had fun there swimming and surfing, and on the way home we’d usually stop to pick roadside blackberries in the hot summer sun. They were always delicious!

Uncle Bruce was not a strong man and after he died in hospital of his illnesses Aunty Dot relocated to Canberra and sadly died there suddenly. Fortunately I had visited her in her new Manly home in 1980 and found that she was most happy to see me after my return from 12 years in New Zealand. Aunty Dot was very content in Canberra.

It has been a privilege to have known these two fine relatives.

Bruce H de Dulin & Doris M (nèe Lawler)