My Gran is a tough lady. She’s sometimes a little scary, but she’s also extraordinarily giving. She defies definition and characterisation.
She has always cared for me. Picked me up from school when I needed to be picked up. Driven me to music lessons, back when I could be convinced to turn my tone-deaf ear to a musical instrument. But what I value most are the lessons she has taught me, through her actions and experiences.
Her life lessons have become my life lessons – both the good and the bad.
Growing up, she did what she was expected to do, by her family and by the standards of ‘what people did’. She studied to become a teacher (because as she often says, there were only three careers available to women back then: teacher, typist and nurse).
But once she graduated from teacher’s college, she and two of her friends travelled from Australia over to England – which took six weeks by ship – to road trip around the country.
It doesn’t seem like a big deal today, but this was 1956. Three Aussie girls traveling around the UK – alone, no less! – was virtually unheard of. My Gran and her friends bought a secondhand taxi, turned it into their tour car, and had the time of their lives.
Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Dove. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100 per cent authentic and written in their own words.
Looking back and thinking about the courage this would have taken, I am so glad to have had my Gran as a role model.
She taught me that I should never be afraid to push boundaries, or do something different to what was expected of me. And although that’s a life lesson popularised on postcards and magnets, it means so much more that I learned it from her.
