Page 96 - Tropic Magazine Issue 18

TROPIC • REGIONAL HISTORY

Love and thanks

to Aunty Yvonne

Award-winning writer Kate
Hennessy reflects on her
childhood trips to Cairns in
the 1980s to visit her uncle -
former Queensland Treasurer
Keith De Lacy - and his
wife Yvonne. lots of Uncle Keith’s mementos from
MEMORY LANE Papua New Guinea, where the family
lived for several years. We’d watch days
Just over a year ago, my mother’s family, of Test Match cricket - West Indies
the De Lacy family of Queensland, versus Australia, the best years! - under
said goodbye to dear Aunty Yvonne, a sluggish fan and Aunty Yvonne was
wife of Uncle Keith, and Mum to my always there with a big smile, snacks,
three cousins, Jonnie, Jacqui and Toni. and the best Aunty love my sister Rachel
As a baby and kid, Mum flew me and and I could have hoped for. We were
my sister Rachel up every year to see underfoot a lot, I guess, but always felt
Grandma and Grandad in Freshwater, loved and welcome.
where they lived in a flat next to Keith, At night, the adults drank tins of beer
Yvonne and the girls. in stubby coolers - Aunty Yvonne liked a
We spent our holidays swimming in the cold beer a lot, as I recall. Everyone did.
pool, eating mangoes, lying on towels Talk was usually politics. I remember
reading Sweet Valley High books snuck the sound of Yvonne’s laugh most of
out from Toni’s bookshelf, giggling at all: joyful, light and perhaps just a little
Grandad “jog” glacially around the lawn surprised to be so amused by whatever
and at Grandma studying the racing had been said.
form (she won a LOT). I was lucky enough to have multiple
Every afternoon, at the same time, wonderful Aunties as a kid, who
a tropical storm would turn the sky modelled a role I’ve come to enjoy
scary shades of navy and violet, then more than anything, really, in my own
thunder through and break the heat. life, as Aunty to my niece and nephews.
The sun would come out right after and So I thank her for that.
everything would steam and sparkle. In
the cool, dry space beneath the classic MORE: thesmallestroom.com.au
Queenslander house (on stilts) were

96 • Tropic • Issue 18