Remembering Grandma and Grandad Tobin – Leo Tobin (1932 – 2010)
Denise: Tell me about your memories of Grandma Alice.
Leo: I was exactly 10 and Grandma Alice died on the 28th January 1944 …and Grandpa and she went to the opening of the Ave Maria Retreat House… they used to go for miles just to listen to Dr Mannix talk – it used to be the thing in those days – you know the opening – and it was a very hot day – they must have walked for 2 ½ miles – got the train to the Essendon station and walked from there to Ave Maria – and she had a stroke that night. She was only 70 – 71 when she died – she lived for about another 5 weeks from that point on – ’til the 28th January when she died – she died at 1 o’clock at Kent Street, Ascot Vale
Denise: Did she go into hospital at all during that time?
Leo: No. Aunty Winnie came and looked after her. She was a nursing sister – She was very very good. And Dad organised chicken a couple of days a week – to boil up – she could only manage broth – chicken broth. And I can remember Aunty Winnie saying – I spent a lot of time down there – school holidays – I was doing the messages – going for a prescription for this or that – and I’d go and get it and bring it back for Aunty Winnie. And I can remember Aunty Winnie saying to me on 28th January “You’d better ring your uncles at the Office” – I think it was Kevin I spoke to – to let them know that Grandma had passed away. She died that day. They all came up. The other thing I remember about her very, very vividly. She’d always go to 9 o’clock Mass on Sunday. Grandpa would always go to 7 – 7.30 Mass. We’d pass on the way home. If we weren’t at the Church by 10 to 9 we’d miss out on a seat.
Denise: This was at St Brendan’s Flemington?
Leo: Yes, she’d bustle along Farnham Street, up past Dr Cahill’s place.
Denise: So until Alice had her stroke – she keep good health?
Leo: I can never remember her being sick – because I would have been sent to do the messages.
Denise: Whereabouts were you living then, Leo?
Leo: In Wood St Essendon – only a tram ride down there. I started at the Brothers school in 1943 in grade 5, the same school that your father (Phonse) started at on its first day in 1917.
Denise: What do you remember of her temperament – before she got sick?
Leo: She was a beautiful person. She had a beautiful nature.
Denise: And how did she cope with Grandad?
Leo: She found him very difficult. I think she had a very hard life.
Denise: Yes, that was what Dad always said.
Leo: In fact, when they came back from the West, they were married in the West – I’ve heard the story so many times… ‘Well, send Alice over…’ and they went from there to Wandong – I think he was a powder monkey there – because Uncle John Tobin said to me when I was at Kilmore, ‘I went to Kilmore when I was a boy.’ I remember once that Dad went off to work from one address in South Melbourne and came home to another…it was cheaper to move that pay their debts – only 2 bob to hire a car for the day to move their belongings.
Denise: Do you remember anything else about Alice? Did she sew?
Leo: Yes, she was a tailoress by trade – she made me an overcoat once – cut down one of dad’s coats.
Denise: What sort of work did Grandad do?
Leo: Grandad retired at 60 – he worked extremely hard. He was a coal lumper – on the wharf – he had a gang of 8 or 10 blokes at Port Melbourne. He’d have a shift of 48 hours where they’d shovel the coal out into baskets and into the hold and the ship would turn around. He was a great reader which was amazing as I recall hearing from one of the uncles that he only received schooling about 2 days a week from the travelling Brothers who came around.
Denise: His writing was good…
Leo: His writing wasn’t bad; his reading was incredible.
Denise: He obviously had a great desire for knowledge.
Leo: Thank God he came to Australia instead of going to America.
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