§1. Happenstance

I was born on the 10th of January in 1947 to be with three lovely sisters: Kay Janice aged 8, Kerrie aged 6, and 4 year old Lynnette. 

The girls were born while the world was at war. Being both timid and shrewd, I waited till its outcome was clear.

The marriage of my parents - Bonnie Patricia Foran, born 13th July 1920, and William Charles Gilbert Voysey, 12th December 1916 - still seems an unlikely union considering their different personalities. But happenstance enabled it (encounters at Eastwood), uncertainty encouraged it (an impending world war), and an imperative (a pregnancy) probably forced it.

On the 5th of February 1938, the seventeen year old bride and her bridegroom of twenty one attended Woollarah district Registrar’s Office at Paddington where registrar Walter Evennett declared them married. 

The young couple had each enjoyed comfortable a childhood, so could only have envisaged a happy life together, as youth will. A school friendship led to courtship and marriage. But the world’s troubles - Germany fomenting turmoil in Europe; Japanese armies sweeping through China - were were to send their future in unwanted directions.

Gilbert the young tradesman Patternmaker was secure in his work with the NSW Government. When war was declared self-pride compelled him to join the army. He transferred to the air force but after four years poor health forced his discharge and the little family of five, after a tumultuous and anxious time, found themselves in 1944 at Springwood on a run-down farm. 

It was the low point of the family's fortunes. But over the next five decades Bon and Gil, as they became known, worked to ensure their children enjoyed a cohesive family and lifestyle that fate and circumstance had denied them.

When we look back at our parents' long struggle we can only be grateful for their dedication and persistence. As this story unfolds it will reveal many of their missteps and questionable choices, but also their successes and triumphs. 

And to maintain the integrity of this journal, it will unfortunately reveal many of mine, too.

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Pictured ~ Bonnie, Gilbert, and Bon's brother Phil Foran. This photograph is a companion to one in chapter 1.4, taken on a different day in the same place, presumably Bondi. Circa 1937-38.