for a large family over the years as had the orchard adjacent to the house.
Julia Williams died in 1935 and is buried in the cemetery at Fox Glacier next to the Catholic Church, Our Lady of the Snows. Julia was a devout Catholic. Visiting clergy were treated like Royalty. When about five years of age I remember Bishop Brodie, in full regalia, sitting in Julia’s small lounge. Perched on his knee, I complained that everybody called me Bobby after my father. Later that evening he instructed those present that I was to be called by my proper name. The use of Bobby ceased, but not the nick-names which later became stuck to everybody living in the district, children included.
Julia’s death-bed is etched in my memory and one of my earliest recollections as a five year old. All her adult children and offspring were crowded into the front bedroom which was filled with flowers. Following the recitation of the Rosary her grand-children were lined up and told to kiss the now dead Julia goodbye - not a happy experience for a young child.
Her husband, Fred, who died in 1938, is interred alongside in the same cemetery. Fred travelled quite extensively once his sons were old enough to manage the farm. When in his mid-fifties, he travelled solo to England in 1924 to attend the British Empire Exhibition in London. He also visited Australia and Fiji. Julia did not accompany him although he took his youngest daughter, Sheila to Sydney, to widen her horizons in the hope she, unlike two of her sisters, would not enter the convent. She did.
On reaching marriageable years, the other three Sullivan girls had found partners and with the exception of Julia, left South Westland, with many moving eventually to the North Island, severing the close contact which would continue into the third and fourth generations among those who claimed South Westland as their
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