Eulogy - Isabel "May" Lynas

ISABEL MAY WILLIAMS

16/10/1908 - 14/2/2000

May was born at Kyabram, to parents John Arthur Lynas (dec. 12th Aug 1953) and Edith May MadilI (dec. 18th July 1931). Her sister Hylda Mary born 1912 (dec. 16th Feb 1966, her brother George Arthur born 1919.

After living in Kyabram the family moved to Savernake where May went to school. In 1925 they purchased a farm at Jones Road, Drouin and later they moved to Melbourne.

On the 1st February 1930, May married Welsh migrant, David Wil1iam. They farmed at Drouin where life was hard. Bob Williams, David’s brother came and worked on the farm.

May worked hard, milking cows by hand, horse and jinker was their only means of transport. The milk was taken to the factory by horse and cart, the school kids hitched a ride on the cart to get to school.

May gave birth to three girls, Edith Doreen 1932, Shirley May 1935 and Gwenneth Joan 1937. In 1940 Joan passed away from pneumonia.

May and David separated in 1944, Bob decided to leave to take a job at the jam factory at South Yarra.

When Frank and Shirley took up dairy farming on their own, May gave them Snow, Snow became one of their better cows leaving many high producing descendants in their herd. .

May did baby-sitting, volunteered as a cook at Portsea camps for retarded children, she also belonged to the Friendly Circle.

May’s interests were many, she played cards at Drouin East, Senior Citizens, Shady Creek, VRI, RSL, Fairview Homes and even at Katandra West. She transported many friends to and from cards. She took a great interest in Lionel Rose and Johnny Famechon fights, and backed the occasional horse in the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups. She loved to follow the cricket and barracked for the Red & Whites (Swans).

In the late 70’s May moved into Flat 30 Fairview Homes, in 1981 the house at Bowen Street was sold.

May enjoyed good health and continued with her interests. She knitted many pairs of socks mainly for her son-in-laws and Grandson-in-laws, many are still being worn.

April 1995 opened a new chapter in May’s life when Eric contacted her, and they met after parting in 1928 when Eric was a baby. Since then the friendship has been wonderful. Eric’s family, Lorna, Lianne, Lindsay and Anthea and their families have truly been part of May’s life.

In 1995, May had to move into Cooinda Nursing Home, where she spend her last few years.

We are all most grateful that May remained of sound mind and could converse on almost any subject with her visitors, her favourites were family, sport and politics.

When David passed away on the 18th March 1970, although separated for over 26 years, May took care of the arrangements to give him a decent burial as she also did for his brother Bob who passed away in October 1974.

May was a kind and easy-going lady, who lived for her family and friends. She got great pleasure from her 14 Grandchildren and 26 Great grandchildren, and was always keen to hear of their achievements and worries.

With the workload too much for May, she packed up and moved to Warragul. Where she got a live-in job as a cook at Rongoa Hospital, Doreen lived with her and Shirley lived with the Young family at Nilma.

May worked hard and finally built a house at 80 Bowen Street Warragul. Her life was full, working to make ends meet, she cooked, washed up for many functions, did shop cleaning, worked at the Sale Yards canteen and later worked at Fairview Homes.

After Doreen left school and went nursing at Sale, May opened her house to boarders. To this day there are still lasting friendships that were bonded with the many boarders she had.

At Bowen Street there were plenty of animals and chooks, Jenny was the house cow, then in the early 50’s Snow, there were lambs and even a pig.