F.D. Lill (Mrs F.W.R. Lill) @ home in Grange.

Nan (Nana - my grandmother). Florence Dulcie Lill (nee Nation of Murray Bridge). Married to Frederick William Russon Lill (Mrs F.W.R. Lill). January 1968. She used to sit on the front verandah. 620 Seaview Rd., Grange, South Australia. (later 536). The beach was only a 1-2 minute walk away. Many would stop and speak to her. I lived with her from birth. During that time, it was grandpa's house. He died when I was 14. They had gone for a retreat to Mt Barker, but he had a stroke. They came home, but grandpa wasn't well, was taken to hospital and died within days. Nan started getting dementia, she walked with a walking stick most of the time I remember. Her bedroom was the one room behind where she is sitting. I had to look after her a lot. I used to open up the striped steamer chair for her. She sometimes wore a white fashion straw hat with a matching rose on the small, upturned brim.
Her name is mentioned in a lot of old newspapers from the early 1900s (20s, and before). She would have stalls for the Grange Bowling Club. Grandpa was a life member.
They had 3 daughters - Gladys Eleanor Johns (Lill), Dulcie Elizabeth Williamson (Lill), and Joyce Constance Capon (Lill). Joyce was my mother.
Nan cooked very well. I mostly remember her cream lilies. Yum. She had some wonderful old clothes I used to play dressup in. I remember her as being gentle and quiet. Never raised her voice. Loved a 'small' glass of sherry on special occasions - about the size of shot glasses. Wore a full apron, but took it off to sit on the front verandah. I was bad as I liked to play tricks on her like undoing her apron string and tying her to the chair behind. She took it in good humor, but my parents told me off.
She would have strokes from about the time I was 10 or so. Not too many. But the ambulance would come. She would go to hospital a few days then come home. Seemingly none the worse for wear. She evidently became too much for Mum. My Dad had died 2 years before. So Nan was put in the nursing home in Henley Beach - diagonally opposite Del Monte, on Seaview Rd (cnr South St) - sth/east cnr. She later was put in Northfield. She readily remembered me and I still tormented her by running with her in the wheelchair. I am sure she loved me.
She died either late 1972 or 1973. I had gone to London in October 1972, and she died while I was there.
I also remember her in the back garden sitting on a chair shelling peas into her apron in her lap. The sun would catch in her white whisps of hair. Everyone treated her with great respect.
Many of our family traditions came from her. Our evening meal meant always a tray with teapot with cosy, cups, sugar and cream jug (with milk) and tea strainer would be at her end of the table. She would be the one to pour teas for the adults after a meal.
She wore 'pantaloons'. I would always laugh at these on the line, as these 'bloomers' with longer legs would blow in the breeze on top of the hill. She also wore a corset on a daily basis. Mainly as these were worn before bra - a 'chamisole' was worn instead. It was a 'whalebone' corset. And one of my chores was to lace her up into it. I still remember putting my foot up into it so I could hold a lace in each hand. I consider myself very 'lucky' to have lived with people who were born in late 1870s as so many things had already been lost in time. I was shown a lot of things that time has lost.
Our house had a lot of aboriginal things. I was told they were Nan's. From Murray Bridge. They knew the aboriginals as the 'blacks' or 'blackies'. I found it very difficult to call Afro-Americans 'black' a bit later in my life, as it wasn't a 'good' term to use. They would come to the back door and trade their weapons - boomerangs, woomeras, spears, for flour and such. I am not sure what my mother did with these. I was always told the house and all were mine. But life didn't work out that way. My Nan was special friends with one aboriginal woman. She told me of one time she had to row her out into the Murray River to keep her away from her drunk husband who was trying to get to her and beat her. Nan told me of the Grange area being mostly reed beds.