Saturday 22 June 2013 saw a rare family reunion in Sydney and the common thread lay in three Burling sisters: Laura, Dorothy and Hazel in age order, but now all deceased. Laura became matriarch of the Patricks family most of whom still reside in the Armidale district, though Pat now lives in Sydney near Dot's brother, Dick, and both were at yesterday's gathering. That, incidentally, was held on Darling Point,one of Sydney's best addresses.
Dorothy senior, Dot's mother, became the matriarch of the Hillard family and, of course, both Dick and Dot junior attended the reunion ... along with me as appendage. And Hazel became matriarch of the Stapleton family and her two sons, Doug and Ian, were also in attendance. Indeed, Ian - an architect by profession and his wife, Maisie, hosted us yesterday. Doug runs one of Australia's leading mohair goat studs in the NSW Central West, and he was accompanied by his wife Rosie who had the distinction of graduating from my department at UNE shortly after I arrived! Indeed, Doug holds a doctoral degree from UNE so that institution was well represented at the gathering.
Well that disposes of our generation - all eight of us with ages ranging from the low 60s to the mid-80s. The next generation was perhaps less well represented. Doug and Rosie's two kids ... well, now young adults, Michael and Catherine, attended, though neither has their own family. And Ian and Maisie's daughter, Alice and her husband were there or course. On our side of the family, only Bec could attend because of course California is a long way to come for a weekend! Rob and Max came too, along with Alice's children who are just a little younger than Max. So 6 of our generation showed up, bringing the total to 14, and the three youngsters made a grand total of 17.
I attach a few pictures of the event taken on my mobile phone as I forgot my proper camera. Fortunately I kept a steady hand and the photos are fairly good, though not as good as the food, which was excellent. Just look at the wonderful deserts, for example. The banquet took about 3 hours from start to finish.
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AS
Dorothy senior, Dot's mother, became the matriarch of the Hillard family and, of course, both Dick and Dot junior attended the reunion ... along with me as appendage. And Hazel became matriarch of the Stapleton family and her two sons, Doug and Ian, were also in attendance. Indeed, Ian - an architect by profession and his wife, Maisie, hosted us yesterday. Doug runs one of Australia's leading mohair goat studs in the NSW Central West, and he was accompanied by his wife Rosie who had the distinction of graduating from my department at UNE shortly after I arrived! Indeed, Doug holds a doctoral degree from UNE so that institution was well represented at the gathering.
Well that disposes of our generation - all eight of us with ages ranging from the low 60s to the mid-80s. The next generation was perhaps less well represented. Doug and Rosie's two kids ... well, now young adults, Michael and Catherine, attended, though neither has their own family. And Ian and Maisie's daughter, Alice and her husband were there or course. On our side of the family, only Bec could attend because of course California is a long way to come for a weekend! Rob and Max came too, along with Alice's children who are just a little younger than Max. So 6 of our generation showed up, bringing the total to 14, and the three youngsters made a grand total of 17.
I attach a few pictures of the event taken on my mobile phone as I forgot my proper camera. Fortunately I kept a steady hand and the photos are fairly good, though not as good as the food, which was excellent. Just look at the wonderful deserts, for example. The banquet took about 3 hours from start to finish.
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AS
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