These memories are based mainly on notes for sermon at Mum's funeral
 at Guardian Angels Church, Wynnum  October 5,  2005

 Mum belonged to the Faith & Family First Party....most important for her was her family and her Irish faith.  Her mother was an Irish immigrant, her father was the son of Irish immigrants

1875 Bridget Kelly & husband James Quinn Snr, grandparents of Aisla 

19-06-1907 Marriage Certificate & photo of John Moffat Hamill & Anne Marie Quinn, parents of Aisla 

30-11-1912 Death Certificate of John Hammil, son of John Hammil & Ann Moffet, grandfather of Aisla

Mum was born on May 8,  1911 at Bourke Hospital in NSW

 Her father was an engineer in a wool shearing shed. He  was a widower and had a previous child before Mum and her older sister Patty.....a Maudy who became Maudy Michael??? whom I never met but  who had some connection at one stage with Hemmant Hotel and a hotel at Ormiston, Cleveland

When Mum was a little child,  her family moved to Toowoomba where her parents had been married and where many relatives lived....especially the Cronin and Carter families

Mum went to Holy Name School in Toowoomba....and one of her classmates was Molly Finigan, mother of Pat Gerard here today at the funeral  (...and Pat's children attended Iona College...) 

1917 Aisla & Patricia Hamill

1917  Five Quinn Sisters (c. 1917?)

(including Anne, mother of Aisla)

1920's  Patricia & Aisla Hamill

c. 1930(?) Aisla Anne & Patricia Grace Hamill 

c.1936? Aisla

1944(?) Aisla?/Patty?/John? Hamill in Toowoomba

Mum attended school until Grade 8...and during her school years learnt to play the piano and organ....later becoming an organist at Holy Name.  All her life she loved music & singing.  The family piano came to our home after Aunt Pat's death in 1962...and Mum loved playing it.  She played only by reading the music sheets...and could not play by ear.  She could play anything at first sight.  She had a large collection of favourite music sheets and especially loved songs from the great musicals like "South Pacific", "Sound of Music" etc

Her family moved a number of times in Toowoomba....see photos in link below (Back to Bourke tour)

When Mum was about 14 (?) she went to work as an accountant in the office at Piggott's department store  in Toowoomba (where Nell Cronin also worked)

Mum & Patty's father John died in 1944:     09-11-1944 Death Certificate of John Moffatt Hamill, husband of Anne Marie Quinn  

Towards the end of World War 2, Dad was repatriated to Toowoomba and met Mum at "CUSA", Catholic United Services Auxilary, that provided social care for returned soldiers  (see this link) 

Mum said that on Victory in the Pacific day, August 15,  1945.....Dad was extra happy after a few drinks...and was up a ladder...and Mum told him to get down (or helped him down?)

Mum and Dad were married on Wednesday January 16,  1946 at Holy Name Church in Toowoomba  by Fr Frank McMorrow  who received Dad into the church  two days earlier on January 14        16-01-1946  Marriage Certificate & photos of David John Wotherspoon &  Aisla Hamill

* When very young,  Mum contracted polio in her right  leg ....which eventually caused her painful back problems in old age
Photo of 1946  shows right leg smaller than left

Mum & Dad took the train to Brisbane for their honeymoon....staying at the former George Hotel in George Street....then moving to Doon Flats in West End (opposite Musgrave Park) and near St Mary's Church.   Mum's faith saw to it that all through her life her home was not far from a church.....no  home was suitable if it was too far from a church
1946 South Brisbane: Doon Flats where Dave & Aisla Wotherspoon lived, and St Mary's Church, where John David Wotherspoon was baptised  

Some time after I was born and baptised (end of 1946) Mum and Dad moved to Blenheim,  a tiny dot on the map near the small town of Laidley about two hours (now) from Brisbane.  At Blenheim Mum & Dad's house was also the local store with a post office store  (...an army friend with post office connections helped get this job...and next job at post office in Manly, Brisbane)
1946 - c. 1950 Dave, Aisla, John, Peter Wotherspoon - at Bleinhem/Laidley, Q
December 1947 (Blenheim Q?): Till, Joyce & Bob Taylor; Aisla & John Wotherspoon

A year or two after my brother Peter was born at Laidley in 1949  our family moved to Manly in Brisbane...where Mum ran the Corner House post office while  Dad  worked at Hargreaves  (later Edgell's) fruit & vegetable factory. The post office was the front of our home.  I can remember we went to Guardian Angels Church in Wynnum each Sunday morning for Mass

Not long before I began school (1952) at Guardian Angels,  our family moved to 348 Tingal Road Wynnum North...again not far from shops/train/bus...and church
c.1952 - c.1959 - Wynnum, Q. - Dave, Aisla, John & Peter Wotherspoon

Mum faithfully visited her own mother in hospital, somewhere near the Brisbane General Hospital, until her mother died in 1954
12-08-1954 Death Certif &  Card of Anne Marie Hamill (nee Quinn), mother of Patricia & Aisla  

Both Mum and Dad were on the volunteer committees at Guardian Angels....in fact till the end of their days, both of them were most generous in attending working bees, fetes etc to support church/schools

When Pete began school at Guardian Angels, Mum went back to full time work - first at T.C. Bierne's in The Valley in Brisbane, then  at the Queensland Bacon factory at Murrarie,  then finally at the Cistern Manufacturing Company at the Gabba  ....all jobs in the office accounting section