Marie Brecht Anderson
My mother was born, December 6th, 1905, in Scone - first child
of Lucie Maud (Barwick) Brecht and Ernest Hubert Brecht. Ernest and Lucie had married in October 1904 at Sparkes Creek outside Scone. Tragically Ernest died two years after marriage.
Although
her father’s death certificate said he died from a heart attack ( at age 31!) my mother was certain he died from inhaling vomit as a result of food poisoning.
After Ernest’s death Lucie Brecht discovered she was 3 weeks pregnant with a second child. Alone, newly pregnant, and with an 11 month old baby daughter she went to live with her parents for some years until they were able to
return to their father’s property “Burnside” outside of Scone.
In 1929 my grandmother Lucie, and her children, Marie
and Ern, [Marie is my mother], moved to Warrah Creek and acquired the property on Warrah Creek which they named “Burnside”. My mother often spoke of the early responsibilities her brother Ern had ... because there was no father in the household
... but also of the help they received from others who lived along the creek.
(If only one of us had thought to ask the questions about
those early days at Warrah Creek. I have often wondered why they moved from Scone to Warrah Creek when most of their relatives were around Scone? Was it Lucy’s brother Ernest Barwick who encouraged them? Maybe there is someone who knows the answers?)
In her early 20’s my mother decided she wanted to go to nursing school in Newcastle. Grannie Brecht ( Lucie) was dead set against it.
Somehow my mother got the books and necessary information to teach herself all that was needed to sit for the Nurses Entrance Exam: she passed. My grandmother was still dead set against her leaving saying that she was needed to work on the property.
Marie told me of trying to work out how she could change her mother’s mind. A young man somewhere in the area had been “calling”
on my mother, offering to take her riding on his motor bike. Lucie Brecht was not going to allow that! Marie was the more determined and following one outing on the motor bike my grandmother capitulated and my mother went to Newcastle to nursing school
in 1931!
During the Depression there was a period of time when all trainee
nurses were sent home for lack of funds to pay them! My mother went to Warrah Creek for a period of some months and then returned to Newcastle to complete her nurses training. It was during the latter years of Marie’s nurses training that
my parents met - my Mum always “blamed” Arthur Barwick. Arthur was going to Newcastle for some reason and took my mother back to the city at the end of her annual holidays: he insisted on going a day earlier than she had planned. On
New Year’s day 1934 Marie decided to spend the day at the beach and it was while she was searching the sand for her lost sixpence that my father came up and asked if another nurse he knew was on duty and consequently bought her an ice cream because the
lost sixpence was never found.
Marie Emilie Brecht and William Anderson were married at St. Stephens Church, Warrah Creek on August 8th 1936.