Jean Hendy was interviewed on 16 September 1994. Jean was born at a private hospital in Marrickville called Bethesda in 1923 and grew up entirely in Newtown. In this excerpt, Jean talks about her great uncle’s garden at the house in Chelmsford Street, previously named as Wellington Street.
When we came into this house, when my mother’s father lived here, my mother’s uncle lived here, he had the most beautiful garden out there because he was keen on gardening. And anything that’s there now I tried to bring it back because it …that’s another thing that’s in my memory very strongly. He had the most beautiful garden. And I can remember now I could draw a plan of where everything was and I was only a child. I was um, I was seven years old when he died. Because I know he died in 1930. And I was born in 1923 but I can remember every plant and every rose and every vine where they were. Isn’t that incredible? And I remember along the fence, on this side there used to be those baby pink roses I think thats the Dorothy Perkins and it used to grow right along there. And I used to be so proud and I would go to school with a bunch of those for the teacher, you know. But you know if you go along those lanes there, that Dorothy Perkins is growing along and it’s come up along, and I’m sure it’s from the same. It grows underground. Because I know it went underground and it was growing next door for a while. And every time I see it and it’s come from my place.
