My Big Nan

The first photo is of Nan when she was in her twenties, before she met John, my pop; and the second is Nan now. Nan was raised on and worked the family farm in Pūhā before moving to Whatatutu with Pop in 1947. Go past Te Karaka, and go further out into the wop-wops, and you’ll find Whatatutu. There’s no shops but there’s a fire brigade and if I recall, a school. She’s still in the original homestead on the land where she’s been for seventy-six years. Nan and Pop first set up in what us kids call the old house and as their family grew, they built the homestead she lives in now.

Nan and Pop established a dairy farm there but over the years it’s just become the farm. Nan milked cows with Pop every day and also hand milked for the house, bringing enough milk home to the house in her billy can.

Big Nan’s got five kids of her own. And she’s a grandmother to eleven of us, and then there’s about twenty-five, twenty-six in the next generation. And she’s a great-great-grandmother of six. I got stuck on the numbers – what a big bunch of us there is. Pop passed away when I was about twelve, and she’s just stayed there. Now my mum’s sister lives with her, and Mum’s brother also lives on the farm.

She’s still such a hard worker at her age. She’s still gardening. She’s got her wee trolley that she goes around with but she still gets out in the garden. She still sews her own clothes. And she’s always polite. She doesn’t say a bad word at all. She’s of that generation. She’s always worked hard on the farm, and kept the family together.

We went up on the weekend; just a surprise trip to go and see her, because we don’t get back there often. My cousins still take their kids out to the farm and they’ll potter around. Her knowledge, wisdom and work ethic has been passed down over the years, through the generations. We’re so grateful that we’ve got her around.