Well after awhile when the concreting business was going so well with Lewis and John it was decided that we would buy a property in Willaston near Gawler in South Australia about ten kilometers from Elizabeth where we currently lived.
It was a very old property with about 5 acres of land and my love of horses came out and I thought oh it would be great to have a horse and was promised one by Lewis. Lewis never wanted children and even though I really wanted children the subject was a closed one. I had been told by various Doctors I would never be able to have children. So I thought having a small farm with animals took me back to my days on living on farms where animals were my only safe companions and I would forget about having my own children. I was also promised the huge big room which was a bathroom, laundry and toilet would be renovated. It just had an old toilet and huge big bath with a shower over it and no laundry sink. It was a big huge cold room. The kitchen was also just as bad. The built on bit that went from what was the font window of the kitchen looked over a type of family room, and the rest of the house had three bedrooms and another lounge. So much larger than where we were living. Again I was promised all would be renovated. But as I found out Lewis love of doing slate work and sculpture the outside of the house took precedence and was first to be done. I got my horse and learnt to ride again and was easy to ride as was an ex race horse but do you know I cannot even remember its name. We had hens so was nice to have nice fresh eggs. Edward wanted some rabbits so we made a mistake and got two male rabbits. Well one day when I went to feed them one of them attacked me and ripped a huge scratch down my arm. It was very scary so soon we did not have any rabbits. I am not sure what happened to them as they seemed to of just vanished over night. I think Lewis and his brother Ronald had something to do with it. But no we didn't have rabbit stew,lol. We gained two Siamese and a Burmese cats and I loved them dearly. However one got run over accidentally by Lewis. It broke my heart.
I still had my scooter and was still travelling into Adelaide around forty kilometers to do my demonstrating work which I enjoyed. It got me away from a man whom I was finding out was a male chauvinist.
Lewis believed a woman's place was in the home and never lifted his finger to help with any house work,dishes or cooking. It was all left to me and Edward was encouraged as a boy he didn't have to do any house hold chores and it was all left up to me. Now I know why I hate cooking and preparing a nice meal and not even a thank you and looking out the window into the family room to see two of them watching TV while I was doing the dishes as I did every day.
Lewis was not an emotional man and never gave gifts for birthdays or Christmas, just like my stepfather who was the same. I realized I ended up marrying a man like him.
I became depressed and felt just like I was a slave. Lewis was always quite good with money and always gave me enough for food and my personal needs but that was not enough. There was no intimacy and we never went anywhere as Lewis just wanted to stay home and follow the racing horses on TV.
Then one day I got a letter from a cousin from New Zealand and was now living with his wife Robyn and daughter Kathleen in Townsville, Queensland. I had been trying to find my biological father and over the years I would write letters to various people or organizations in New Zealand to try and find him. Around this time my brother visited from Melbourne and as he suffered from depression and ended up an alcoholic, Lewis used to make fun of him as Lewis could not stand anyone who was weak as he called it. So my brother Les never visited me very often after that. It upset me Lewis was so cruel.
Anyway after a few letters between my cousin John it was decided I would go up to Townsville to met him after twenty or more years. John was like a brother as when I was born six weeks earlier than he was born my mother had no milk. So Johns mother, my Aunty Marg would breast feed us like twins. So John and I had this uncanny bond.
I was excited about going up by train and knew it would be a long journey but not as long as it turned out to be? This was end of 1973 early 1974. Before I left I was feeling unwell but as I was always unwell and in pain and had, had many visits to the local Gawler hospital to find nothing was wrong, yet I was always fatigued and in extreme pain. So this time I just pushed on through as I had always done.
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