Fay Rixon was born at a little bush hospital in Kentucky south. New South Wales, Australia. she lived on the farm called Carinya which means happy home for all of her life .Carinya was leased to her family as a soldier settlement for his service in the Great war.
To say that young fay was a lover and champion of animals great and small was an understatement. She grew up surrounded by chooks cows cats dogs and horses. Her love like girls the world over was horses. Her older brother lin and big sister Merle were so much older than fay and loved and adored her all their lives. I think that Australian country girls are born on a horse and my mum could ride from a very early age. Her love of horses was passed on to her grandchildren. Carinya had draught horses to pull the carts and plow the ground. Mum loved them and tendered them. when the second world war was declared Mum knew that her brother lin was going to volunteer and she knew in her heart that she would lose him.
The love of reading was passed down to me(thanks Mum) and she was a very good reader long before she started school at Kentucky South primary School. She would ride her pony to school and one day on her way home from school a train blew its whistle and scared her horse and it bolted home with mum on the back. She couldn't hold on and fell off and had to walk home with broken ribs and bruised ego. Horse made it home without her and her mother walked to see what happened.Poor Mum didnt want to admit that she was injured and spent the night in pain.The doctor came and said she was very brave to walk all the way home with a broken rib and praised her.
Her brother had his last leave and he shipped out from Kentucky south station. My Mum said she didn't cry so Lin wouldn't feel bad going but she wept all the way home knowing it was the last time. Her step brother and sister joined up as well and her Father was a Captain in the Home guard equivalent. Her sister was at PLC college and mum missed her when she was away at school. Mum used to dress her pets up in her baby clothes especially her kitten tommas. Mum spent a lot of time on her own but she learned to drive a tractor and milk cows and even shear sheep. Girls were tough back then and a boy tried to push her but mum "flattened" him. Mums sense of history and love of making up stories to share was one of her childhood strengths. One heartbreaking memory she told me was that one year after a drought the bank was pressuring her dad to pay up or they would be in financial trouble and they had to sell a lot of the properties animals to help pay the loan. Her beloved horse who was part Arab and part stock horse was sold. It broke Mums heart to see it loaded in a truck. Her life was a lot of goodbyes and missing distant loved ones. Carinya was saved and later on Italian POWs arrived to help on the farm and not stuck in a camp. They were captured in the north african campaign. The italians treated mum like a little queen and loved and protected her as one of their own. One of them was very tall strong and gentle.His name was Catala. They all had purple maroon uniforms and worked very hard on the farm. When uncle Chick came home from middle east to fight on the kakoda trail he was greeted with Clicked heals and nazi salutes to his amusement.