The name is pronounced Lo-rene and named after an aunt, Beth's brothers wife and her mum's mother Irene but later on became shortened to Lol initiated by her brother Peter. I started my life at 23 Dumfries St., Deer Park, Victoria and was christened at Deer Park. There are no real memories of this place as I moved to 38 Wallace St., Sefton, N.S.W. in late 1954.

1956 was not a good year for my parents. My eldest and only brother, Peter (born 1951) suffered Polio in early 1956 and luckily recovered relatively unscathed and mid-way through the same year I became sick and spent 18 months recovering. At the time it was not known what I had and an operation to remove a gland in my upper left groin was taken to try and determine the disease. I was admitted in August 1956 to Royal Alexandria Children's Hospital, Sydney with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and in August 1957 was released. During my stay I was sometimes transferred by ambulance to the Children's Convalescent Home at Collaroy. The only memory I have at the convalescent home was the cubby house and the long verandahs where the beds were all lined up for the children to enjoy the sunshine. The Convalescent Hospital was built during the polio epidemic. These were hard times for my parents as visiting was allowed only once a week. On one occasion my parents arrived at the hospital and the nurses were unable to locate me only to find I had been placed accidentally in Ward 12 for the terminally ill children. I left hospital with splints nearly up to my thigh and three prongs sticking out from the bottom, they allowed me to stand and then later on I went back to have a pair of calipers and special boots made and I remember trying to walk in these contraptions.

In 1959 I started kindergarten at Sefton Infants School and remained there until 1961. Sometime during this period a T.V. was installed and I remember it arriving, prior to this every Sunday evening mum and dad would walk us all down to Mr. & Mrs. Barnett’s place so we could watch Disneyland. In 1962 I started at Regents Park Primary School. Getting to the school meant going by train, this was very exciting. and as mum worked part-time she would sometimes catch the same train or I would go with my brother who was in 6th Class. My mum ocassionally worked for the headmaster of Regent's Park School, Mr. Fiddis.

When I was fairly young my playmates were 3 boys who lived around the corner from us - the Thompson's - Colin, Malcolm and Ricky. Their mum enjoyed me coming around because she would always tell me she wanted a girl and eventually she got her wish. I attended Sunday School at St. John's Church of England at Sefton and their Physical Culture Club. At 12 I was confirmed at St. Mark's Church of England at Chester Hill and became a Sunday School teacher at St. John's. We all looked forward each year to the Sunday School picnic and Christmas concert. For many years we also attended the Christmas Picnic that I.C.I. (the company my father worked for) put on - with Santa always arriving in something different with presents and a bag of lollies. Tickets were also handed out to get several free ice creams and drinks. Great fun and very memorable.

My whole childhood and part of my early adult life was spent in the Girl Guide Movement. Joining 1st Sefton Brownies in 1962 at the age of 7 where mum was a leader and spent each September school holidays at Glengarry Brownie Cottage at Turramurra. Around 10-11 years I went to Guides and my first trip away was a 2 week tour around Tasmania and my mum by this time had transferred to 1st Sefton Guide Co. after Mrs. Lines and Mrs. Stutsel had decided to retire. Later on at 16 years of age I moved on to Sea Rangers, first at Carramar, H.M.A.S. Vampire and then to Berala H.M.A.S Sydney.

The recollections of my time spent in the Scouting Movement are wonderful. Camping at different locations in May and September school holidays but the most frequented camp site was at Glengarry Training Centre at Turramurra. Hikes were always at different places and happened at least once a month. The 1st Sefton Guide Co. were a very active group and were always involved in something, Anzac Day Marches, cake stalls, bottle drives etc. Most of my friends by this time were also in Guides so I had the best of both worlds - always having your best buddies around to share the journey and look back on later in life and laugh about all the fun times.

In December 1965 when I was 11 is a time I will never forget because I had asked for a pair of roller skates for Christmas but woke up one morning in mid December and my right knee was blown up like a balloon. Only being very young when I had this condition previously but my parents knew straight away and a quick telephone call found me back to the Specialist, Dr. Sam Stening. He recommended 6 Disprin a day and no walking for sometime so consequently the roller skates went back and I received a watch instead and of course bitterly disappointed, I wanted my parents to mind them until I was able to walk again.

Not one to sit for too long I hopped around everywhere on my left leg (which had been originally afflicted) and sometimes piggy-backed by Dad or Peter - but how I longed to be back to normal. Blackfriars Correspondence School provided me with my school work and my mother gave up work and became a part time teacher. May 1966 saw me start Year 7 at Sefton High School and for the first time in my life I passed Maths with a great mark, largely due to my mother. It didn't take long for me to return to my active self, going with my girlfriend Janne and her Dad to swimming early in the morning in an unheated outdoor pool at Birrong Baths where my sister and our friends spent a lot of time during the Summer, loved doing back flips off the diving blocks. Played netball at Condell Park and joined a school jogging group that started an hour before school. I represented our school zone at the N.S.W. Cross Country Titles but unlike my brother was unable to be competitive over short distances, hopeless, but could run for miles.

Having such determination has never allowed the disease to get the better of me or get in the way of what I wanted to achieve, but I know from the pain point of view it would have been much easier for me just to sit.

I completed my Lower School Certificate at the end of Year 10, 1969 and started at Burrough's Comptometrist School (counting machines - before computers) in January, I was nearly 16. It also included a typing course for an hour each day. One of my girlfriends from school, Bronwyn Leary went as well. The course lasted for 6 months then they found you a position in the work force. Bronwyn went to work for the Govt Shipping and Export in Circular Quay and I went to the P.M.G - Postmaster General Dept. - now Telstra - a Government Dept. at that time. It was situated in the Imperial Arcade right in the heart of the city. My job there was to work out the price people paid for their phone calls. I was there for about 10 months and left, I got a job at L.J. Hooker Industries but became bored and moved again to try something new, this time Floristry. Found a job in the Strand Arcade but I was only really needed due to it being around Mother’s Day. I was not put off by this and I managed to crack the biggy, Searle's the most prestigious Florist in Sydney. After 10 months I decided working on Saturdays was not what I wanted. Working in the City meant by the time I arrived home it was mid afternoon. Next job was working for Dairy Farmers at Ultimo, I went back to comptometry. In the test I had a perfect score so the job was mine. I looked after the milk delivery truck invoices, mine had to tally with theirs at the Depot by noon everyday. The work was varied in the afternoon but I was again restless, I had mastered it and needed a new challenge.

I was then employed by Tooth's Brewery but it was not to last and about 9 months later I started work for the Bank of N.SW. or today known as the Westpac Bank. I was back up in the heart of the city again on the corner of O'Connell, Hunter and Pitt St. I lasted long enough here to take an annual holiday but left not long after to work at the CBA Bank in the Data Dept. in Burwwod.

I met Mike (my husband) by this time at a one-day seminar for adults wanting to become leaders in the Scout Movement. We struck up a friendship and he offered to drive me home. I was 17. Sometimes Mike would walk up and have lunch with me, he was an Apprenticed Compositor at a Printing firm called Smith and Miles.

I became engaged during my time at the CBA Bank Data Centre along with 2 other girls Rhonda Garlick (Thomas) and Jenny Lewis (Buckley) who I became friends with and still enjoy a wonderful relationship with today but sadly another girl who formed part of the group Jenny Orr (Lenard) died some years later in a car crash.

Mike and I were married on 27th July 1974 at the All Saints Church in Parramatta and honeymooned at Lamington National Park, on the NSW/Queensland border - near Surfers Paradise. After I was married I had a new job lined up at Charge Card Services in Auburn. Mike and I first lived in a high rise flat complex in Parramatta near a long time friend, Jill.

January 1975 I celebrated my 21st birthday, held at my parents place, Sefton. It was a great night and the girls from work along with Mike all pitched in and bought me a sewing machine but little did I know just how handy this present was going to become. Around late June I started to feel sick and soon discovered I was pregnant with our first child, Amanda.

We set about finding a house that was reasonably close to where we both worked. Mike was now working at Cumberland Newspapers, Parramatta. We settled for a suburb called Greystanes (west of Parramatta) and brought a small house at 67 Grevillea Cres.

I continued to work until I was about 8 months and I thought she would never arrive, but 2 weeks after the set date on 1st March 1976 a dark haired darling little girl, Amanda Michelle, 8lbs 1ounce, 22 inches long and beautiful black curly hair that later fell out and became very blonde arrived. Amanda was the first grandchild for both families. She had chubby cheeks and the apple of everyone's eye.

We took our first trip away as a family when Amanda was 18 months and went to Kangaroo Island. By the time we came back Amanda was virtually toilet trained which was lucky because in November 1977 I was pregnant again this time we had a son, Leigh James, born 13th July 1978 at Blacktown Hospital same place as Amanda but in the new building for the maternity ward. This was around the time they allowed babies to stay with their mums for the day only returning to the nursery at night. Circumcision for boys was also a big issue at this time with most doctors now not encouraging mothers to have it done. Leigh was only home about 2 weeks and I was rushed back into hospital with kidney stones and Leigh was being breastfed so he had to come as well and during this time I had Leigh circumcised.

Luckily Leigh was a very contented happy baby always with a giggle because I became pregnant again when Leigh was around 11 months and on 28th February 1980 Melanie Joy was born. She was in a hurry and I was well into contractions by the time Gran and Pa arrived to take care of the other two. Mike drove me to the new hospital at Westmead, Melanie Joy arrived 2 hours after I was admitted and again was a dark haired beauty though a little bit smaller than the other two. She weighed in around 7lbs 3ounces and 17 inches long.

The family now complete we set about enjoying a very busy and full life but decided we would now like to move. This time we decided to build and travelled up to Terrigal on the Central Coast of N.S.W. to look for a suitable block which we found at 57 Lumeah Ave, Terrigal. We sold our house in 1980 and while we built stayed at my parents place in Sefton. We moved into the house February 1981 and Melanie celebrated her 1st birthday and Amanda started kindergarten at Terrigal Primary School.

Later on as the children grew up I became involved with their activities. Swimming lessons and then full-on training with 5am starts and then back again in the afternoon, netball and soccer on Saturday mornings in the Winter and Surf Lifesaving in the Summer on Sundays. Later on this also included triathlons and cycling. At the time of this story, December 2001 I now enjoy gardening and catching up with friends and their children. Both Mike and I still own the Video Shop which we bought in May 1989 after I left work at Big W Computer Dept. where I eventually became the manager for Control Records.

What the next chapter in my life holds for me I of course have no idea but as yet none of my children are married or have children of their own so hopefully being a grandmother myself one day is a possibility.

    
Left Pic: Lorene - 1 year of age.
Right Pic: Lorene (centre) 2 years with Mother Beth - Brother Peter and Sister Heather (right)

Regents Park Primary School
Fancy Dress Ball

At work - Control Records
Big W - Gordon - December 1987

February 2000
Melanie (youngest daughter) and Lorene

Amanda (eldest daughter) & Kelli in front of Amanda's Car

  
"Saturday is Washing Day
Is everybody happy
You bet your life we are!"

Amanda (Registered Nurse) with New South Wales Premier Bob Carr at the opening of the Coronary Angiogram Unit at Gosford Hospital in October 2002.