Two Sisters, Two Friends

Mum (Jessie Flora Roberta Rose); and Aunty Bea, (Beatrice Rose), grew up in Takaka, near Nelson, in the north of the South Island of New Zealand, in the early 1900s. Flora and Bea had one brother, Gordon Stuart Rose, their parents were Joseph Thorpe Rose and Elizabeth Scott, both of whom had a Scottish background. Of particular interest, there were three Rose bothers, who married three Scott sisters!!! Talk about keeping it all in the family!

The two sisters were so very close to each other, and not a day would go by without them chatting for hours on the phone. The two woman were such great friends. If we rang Mum, and the phone was engaged, we would try Aunty Bea’s number; if that was busy, we gave up trying to call!

Whatever Mum did, Aunty Bea would copy, and vice versa. Mum wanted a fish pond in our front yard, so she and Aunty Bea made one, filled it with goldfish and pretty water lilies; with chicken wire discretely hidden amongst the leaves - aah, that stopped our cats, Blackie and Joey from getting at the fish! Aunty Bea, had a smaller fishpond in her front yard.

Aunty Bea had a vegetable garden in her backyard, we had one as well, all dug, planted out and looked after by the two sisters. At harvest time, Aunty Bea would come over to our place in Ellerslie, from her home in Balmoral, and the two of them would get “stuck into” to picking the crops. We had corn, beans, peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, plenty of food for the two families. Often I would join Mum & Aunty Bea in shelling the peas; we would in in the sun and chat away, while I would snuck a few  empty pea pods into my mouth!

My cousin, Yvonne and I often talk about how strong and ‘let’s just get on with it’, these two ladies were. My niece, Catherine and I also feel, it must have been the robust Scottish upbringing, because the strong, ‘we can do this’ traits have been passed down to many of the women in our family.

The house I grew up in was tiny compared to the mansions built now, no separate bedrooms for everyone, we shared rooms. The house was built with a short flight of stairs to the front door. One  day, Mum and Aunty Bea decided they would build a HUGE concrete deck across the front of the house. Dad was still working at that time, so the construction was all done by Mum & Aunty Bea. WOW, what a feat, and we had a great place to play on, and under; we used to crawl under the deck, and use it as a hiding place. An old iron bed was used as part of the steel re-enforcing, whatever steel the ladies could find, they used.

Our house was on a quarter acre block, so there was plenty of room for the vegetable garden, and the piece de resistance of construction, built by Mum and Aunty Bea….a tiny house! The house was built as a hut for all of us kids, there was a small covered porch, three lots of windows, all which opened, we thought we were in heaven. Over the years the hut was used as a bedroom by my sister, Mags and I as well as my brother Robin and his wife, Joan.

When I think back on the friendship Flora and Bea had, it was such a wonderful thing, and imagine how sad we all were when one day, something, and NONE of us know what happened, the two sisters fell out! I can’t even begin to understand how awfully sad it must have been for both of them to not have the daily contact they once had; it must have been heartbreaking. Aunty Bea remarried after Uncle Arthur died, and she moved away from Auckland. I don’t even know if the two sisters met up again, before they passed away.

Flora (Rose) McGoram and Bea (Rose) Cox, with L-R: Lyn and Yvonne Cox.
Photo taken at 'Farmers' Department Store in Hobson St, Auckland, NZ

The photo is of Mum, Aunty Bea and two of our cousins, Yvonne and Lyn, on a trip to the city. In the 1950s, when people went to town to shop, they always ‘dressed up’; out came the ‘Sunday Best’ clothes, gloves, hats, shoes and socks. My cousin, Yvonne tells me this photo was taken in the old ‘Farmers’ department store. Photos like this, were very popular in that era, and I just ADORE it.

Looking closely at the broach on Mum’s dress, I recognise it as one of hers that is now in my treasure chest, it is made of deep, blood red stones. One of my hobbies, is Scrapbooking, and I have ‘scrapped’ this photo twice, once for an album of mine and the other time for an album I made for my sister, Mags.

This is just a snippet of my Mum and Aunty Bea’s life, I hope you have enjoyed it. Family, if you have more tales to share, please let me know, or add it in the comments section. Thanks.