On special occasions, my extended family would gather together at Gran and Pop’s to celebrate. There was always plenty of laughter and fun, and Aunty Sally was always the loudest in the room. Before she passed away at the age of 83, Sally wrote about growing up in Melbourne in the 1930s and ’40s. This is her story.
I was born in Cheltenham, Victoria, on 25 July 1930 to Minnie and William Evans. I was the youngest of 12 children: three boys and nine girls. My name was Thelma Gwen, but my eldest brother nicknamed me Sally as a baby, and it stuck with me (actually, I prefer it).
Memories of my childhood in Cheltenham are very vague; my elder sisters and brothers told
