Yesterday I received a notice in my In Box reminding me of my late paternal grandmother, Jessie Wallace's birthday today, 19^th March, when she would have turned 121. As her first born granddaughter and first child of her first child (my Dad, Kenneth Boyd Wallace was born on 23^rd March 1911) I always had a special place in her large and generous heart.

Jessie Dale was born in Gympie, Queensland to James and Jane Dale, the third of eight surviving children in 1891 and married Samuel Boyd Wallace in Brisbane. They went on to have eleven children over the next twenty one years, eight boys and three girls.

Nan loved being surrounded by a house full of chattering kids and I was always happy to stay at the ‘farm’ with her, where my days were filled with new and interesting activities – hand milking cows for milk to the house, watching the separator skim off the cream, collecting the eggs, helping to toss golden ears of corn into the pig sty, bottle feeding 'poddy 'calves. Riding a horse was another skill I learned almost as soon as I could walk and I love to watch the men dipping the Hereford beef cattle, perching on a fence rail to cheer them on.

Jessie came from the era of ‘rolling up your sleeves and getting the job done’ and every morning, after she’d plaited her hair and carefully wound it around her head, she popped on an apron. That was the signal that she was working, as the only time it came off was when visitors popped in or when it was time to sit down to eat dinner.

As I look back on my own life, I recognise many of her strengths in my own personality. “Always wear a smile, Annie, you are not properly dressed without one” was one of her popular sayings. Her family and extended family were the most important people in her life and the reason for many of our large family gatherings.  “It cost nothing to be pleasant,” was another of her pet sayings, particularly aimed at my older male cousins who played such pranks as putting tree frogs in my bed.

Happy Birthday today, dear Jessie, and know that this granddaughter misses and loves you.