Members Stories

Our Neighbours from Scotland.

About 1976, the place next door was sold to an older Scots couple.
They had emigrated from Scotland to join their family in New Zealand, and they were retired.
The section had very small batch at the back of the section and they moved in there, their son was going to build them a small home for them to retire in, while they lived in the batch.
Her name was Georgina, but we always knew her as Ina. Her husband was called Skeddie.
He was a coalminer in Mussel borough near Edinburgh, and developed black lung disease from his many years in the pit.

 We just became good friends, as did our daughter Moana, when she and her husband came to stay with us in1977.
That was also the year that they moved into the little cottage,
They were an interesting couple with a lovely Scot’s Brogue, Skeddie was a quiet gentle man who enjoyed his smoke, Ina more than made up for him in the talk department, with Skeddie just nodding in agreement or adding a few words to the conversation.

We learnt all about their lives in Scotland over the years. They travelled all around Scotland, England and Ireland each year in their annual holidays,

 How they loved dancing and would go 2-3 times weekly to different halls where the dances were held. They told of how Skeddie was away during the war and Ina had to cope with bringing up 4 children on her own. But also about the friendships and neighbourliness that existed in their community.

Ina gave birth to their 4th child, George, during the latter part of the war. Pregnant women were given extra rations, milk eggs and orange juice among them. She felt sorry for the children and gave them the extra rations rather than eating them herself, with the result that George was born malnourished with all his skin coming off. He was tiny and had to be bandaged every day.  They put him in a drawer lined thickly with cotton wool. He was bottle fed, but failed to thrive, so the doctor told them to feed him stout, much to the consternation of the health nurse, who remonstrated with Ina about that, but Ina said it was the doctors orders so she could take it up with him.

It was a close-knit community Kapa Haka [action songs and haka], A great day enjoyed by us all.

Then, I think it was about 1982; Skeddie was struck by cancer of the colon.

He had an operation, which was quite successful, but developed complications afterward and died. It was in the 50th year of their marriage, and I had already started to plan a street party for them for that occasion, but it was not to be.

Ina was devastated; she had no life long friends or extended family here, only her immediate family. It was quite a terrible time for her. I would go over of an evening and spend 2 or 3 hours with her, allowing her to talk, and she told me of Skeddie and their life together

Ina had me in tears but was completely dry-eyed herself; I hope my visits eased her loneliness.
She could not settle, and decided to she would go back to Scotland to stay with her daughter.

 Ina rented out the house and went home, however,  she could not settle down there either, and came back sooner than planned.
Grief is very hard to cope with, and it takes time.

Ina stayed for a while, but eventually decided to go back to Scotland.

So the house was sold and she returned to Scotland. We corresponded, and she told me she had got a flat in some sort of pensioner complex, where there was some kind of caretaker, who kept an eye on the residents.

She had been suffering from Paget’s disease and probably did not have good health, but it was my impression that she had settled down and that her daughter was very good to her. She died in 1987, 5 years after husband, She was 75 years old.