Grandmother
Found mattress fabric/acrylic paint on MDF Ovals
800 x 1200 mm
Grandmother
Paternal side - Antonia Octavia b.1920 (Thames, New Zealand) d. 1995 Auckland)
We called Antonia Little Nana because she was short. During the war she worked at the dehydration plant in Pukekohe making dried food for the war and later at Cambridge Clothing.
She was a member of Thames/Waikato and Auckland Marching Association. Little Nana always had chickens and used to raise them for sale, she had an abundant wonderful garden and preserved all the fruit and vegetables. She sewed the families’ clothes. Little Nana always had a cigarette in the corner of her mouth and needed to get her hair tinted every week to cover the nicotine stain in her hair.
Maternal side – Hilda Ellen nee Beams b.1903 (Bath, England) d.1969 (Auckland)
Hilda arrived in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland in 1910 with her parents. Hilda became a renowned pianist (London Fellowship) and taught music, mainly piano to students. She played the organ at Pitt Street Church. She was a gifted oil painter. She raised an abundant garden, preserving all her own fruit and vegetables. Hilda lived in Papakura for many years then in Kumeu and later in St Lukes, I still remember the grand piano in her house.
