IN the times when take away food entailed taking your saucepan to the local Chinese café to fill; a young bride brought her husband and week old daughter to Forest Street Whittlesea.
It began a 60-year connection with Whittlesea by the Hocking family. Matriarch Sandra was the guest presenter at the July meeting of the Combined Probus Club of Whittlesea. She still lives in the house that her late husband Ted built, and has the same neighbours who are also members of Probus.
Having moved from Preston, then an outer Melbourne suburb the country lifestyle came as somewhat a shock. She walked along the unmade side of the road to the shopping centre in Church Street only to find that the butcher was closed for lunch. Things have deteriorated since then when there were two grocery stores, but have also improved as the nearest doctor and dentist was quite a distance away.
Sandra accepted the lunch time siestas but was irked by not having a footpath between home and the shops.
“So I did what I have always done. I complained to the right people, loudly and persistently, until something was done about it. We got our footpath. I have never once taken it for granted,” she said.
Sandra and her young neighbours settled down to make the best of their new lives. And make the best of it they have. Over the years Sandra joined every committee that needed a member. School councils, local associations, community groups — if something needed organising or improving her hand was quickly raised. Half a century of membership of the Country Women’s Association is also on her CV. The Hocking children were recognised as being Sandra’s and given the same respect as mum.
Luckily, the statute of limitations has expired or the young Sandra would have an outstanding arrests warrant. The local SP bookmaker lived in her Father’s street and he ran a light from their house to the back lane behind so he could have a light on Thursday nights when the trots were being run, so he could take the bets. Two pounds was agreed as payment for Sandra being light-keeper.
When Ted retired they became “grey nomads” and had many interstate trips to the normal and some exotic places. After the sadness of Ted’s death abated Sandra became an international jet-setter.
A three month trip around England, Ireland and Europe. In 2010 to Canada and the US. In Alaska she rode a bike down a mountain. 2012 was a big one, going to Antarctica. Flew to Peru first and saw the famous Nazca Lines and Machu Picchu, then to Bolivia and Lake Titicaca. From Buenos Aires travelled south to Ushuaia, Argentina.
She boarded a Russian vessel with Australian tour guides. We crossed the Drake Passage to the Antarctica Peninsula. It was very rough overnight and many were seasick. “It was a wonderful trip and I am glad I did it before I got too old”
She also made it to Scandinavia, Scotland, Singapore, New Zealand and Cape York.
“The Uniting Church in Whittlesea had for several years supported a school and orphanage in Zambia, in a town named Kitwe. Three other women and I wished to go and see what our money had built and to see the children at the school. We left in September 2016 for two weeks. We saw the school and the home for girls and their babies. All the money we had sent over the years had been administered well. We were made so welcome and thanked over and over again for our faithfulness in supporting the children,” Sandra said.
“Unfortunately on our last day I stepped into a ditch and badly broke my ankle. I spent a month in a hospital in South Africa and was flown home in October. I had many operations on my leg, but I did not have to have it amputated. I thank God for our wonderful doctors. It took some time, and more determination than I care to admit, but I got there.”
Time overtook Sandra’s resume but even those who though they knew her learned something about a most interesting lady. The saying “still waters run deep” mainly fits Sandra unless it is to do with Plane Trees or footpaths. She was given a token of appreciation to mark a very interesting presentation.