Helena Beatrice Ussher

commonly known to me.......stanley as GAR-GAR.............a nick name that i gave her..................and this name lasted till the day she died. was a tall woman.............had a stately appearance...........when i was very little i tryed to pull her little dog.. MICKEY......from under her bed.still a memory to me. was a member of the local league of mothers..............based at st stevens church in jervois road. the group used to support the solders in the various campanges.............she made a balaglava for me...................and when i went into the army i took it with me....................being the only one to have and to wear it in the cold and snow......they were envious of what i had........altough it was not an army issue..................i would wear it at nights and on patrol......................officers said regardless of it not being army issue.............. we should all have one as part of our gear. helenas parents owned the gluepot hotel at the three lamps /ponsonby. she told me that she used to make lemonade on a sunday in the bar...it was her job.......................for the hotel. and even in those days they had photos on the wall behind the bar...in full view of the patrons, of individuals who had been banned from the hotel.................imagine that in this day and age.....and she used to police it............. she loved sitting on the veranda .watching the world go by..........and talking to her friends as they went by the house at .2 melford street was built around 1901........................and is stll there to this day...........................it was left to me after my mother died.........................and i sold it for $58,000.......................wish i had of kept it.....................at the back of the section was the wash house.............outside toilet and coal shed................originally the wash house was the horse stable........where my grandfather kept his horse.......that he took to the boer war.never to return...........the horse that is. there was no running hot water in the house.................but a calafont for gas heated hot water at the end of the bath..................my mother saved up and bought a hermetic......water heater that was fixed to the wall near the kitchen sink.and we had hot water................and used to carry an aluminium jug to the bathroom sink to wash in...................she died of cancer in the early sixties.....................missed to this day.