Magda Duda

When Magda first visited her son Wolfgang on his rural property at Merbein, Wolf said she was very busy with the broom unsuccessfully trying to clear away the spiderwebs. We didn’t have to spend very long with Magda to realise that she was a busy townie, born and bred, but Daddy long-legs were one of the few things that seemed to get the better of her. She was never idle and for many years worked long hours in busy city factories. In the mid-1950’s she was reluctant to move out to St Albans which at that time was the most distant suburb to the northwest of Melbourne. There were only three bungalows in Shirley Street which was a gravel roadway. They overlooked farmland with abandoned basalt quarries. She also commented that her granddaughter has moved to woop-woop (West Wimmera). “I couldn’t live there. You would have to go forty kms to the shops. What happens when you forget salt or pepper, or something you need?”