Helen Frances Edmonds (1934-2018)

It is with a sad heart, but with lots of wonderful memories that I write this post today. My Aunt, Helen, my Mum Val's sister passed away on Wednesday evening, leaving many family and friends to mourn her passing. Happy memories, however will live on forever.

Val & Helen

Helen Frances McAuliffe was born on 18 April 1934 in Balaclava, the second daughter to Thaddeus (Ted) McAuliffe and Catherine Myers. She grew up in what had previously been the old Balaclava Police Station in Blenheim Street. It had ceased being a Police Station in 1929, but still consisted of many outbuildings, so not only her immediate family, but extended family lived there as well. Many stories have been told over the years of the SP bookie operations her uncles ran and her grandmother throwing betting slips in the fire when she thought the police were coming. Helen also recounted the story of one uncle keeping eggs in a strange solution, which as an adult she realized he must've been selling the eggs on the black market. As well as her older sister, Val, Helen had a younger sister, Bev and a younger brother, Ted. Helen and Bev were both bridesmaids at my Mum and Dad's wedding in 1952 as can be seen below.

Bev, Helen & Val

On the 11 June 1960, Helen married Frank David Edmonds and that is where my recollections begin, as I was the flower girl at their wedding, as the picture below shows. After their marriage, Helen and Frank, lived with Frank's parents in a big old house in Tooronga Road Malvern. I remember it well with a passageway down the centre and all the rooms coming off it. I later learned it had been built in the late 1880's. I recall many visits to this house, the Dachshund or 'sausage' dog they had, as well as  my first trip on a tram. That tram trip, now I think about it, was probably to visit Mum at Francis Cabrini Hospital when my brother, Tony, was born exactly a year to the day after Frank and Helen's wedding.

Bev, Helen & myself

Helen and Frank lived in many houses over the years. As a child, their home at Warburton was one of the places I stayed, where they ran a pig and dairy farm on the banks of the Yarra opposite where Oscar's is today. It was my first real experience of farm life, milking cows, open space and even riding a horse. Although that last experience was laughed about for years, as I didn't loosen my foot in the stirrup when I dismounted and ended up on my back, foot in the air, in the mud. On one visit to their home in Kallista, I can remember us kids all going blackberrying in the paddocks around the house or on another occasion I was educated in how to kill a chicken! As a kid it was always fun to visit Helen and Frank's place.

Helen was also interested in family history like myself and we spent many hours together comparing notes and identifying photos. When my Mum died in 1986 I had lots of photos that had belonged to both my Nan and my Mum. Helen and I spent many hours writing on the back of those photos, the people she knew, so the memories wouldn't be lost. Recently sorting papers, I found a sheet Helen had typed up after a trip to Shepparton to chase up information on our McAuliffe ancestors. It was a list of all the relevant graves we had found in Shepparton Cemetery with the information she had copied down. What amused me most was the date, it was 1988 when we had made that trip. It just seemed like yesterday! Not only had we visited the cemetery, we had spent time in the library scrolling through newspapers on microfilm to find obituaries and went to the council to find out exactly where Jeremiah McAuliffe had selected his land and then drove out to the spot. We were kindred spirits as far a family history goes and only a few weeks ago she was worrying how she could share all her research to her three children equally after her death.

Bev, Helen & myself

Helen, in April 2017, decided it would be a special treat to return to The Gables in Malvern, where her wedding reception was held to enjoy high tea which is now run there. It was a memorable girls' day out for her, with her sister Bev (her bridesmaid) and her daughter, Catherine, myself (her flower girl) and daughter Kerri and granddaughter, Cassie. The photo above shows the three of  us standing in front of the same fireplace as the earlier wedding photo, with only the mirror having changed.

Very sad you are gone Helen, but you are now with your husband Frank and wonderful memories live on. Rest in Peace.

Helen (2014) in her favourite colour, red.