"Here they come again."

The rattle of trolleys preceded the nursing sisters who came to administer four-hourly medications. They seemed to like the old man, called him Frank as though they had known him all of his life.

Some people fade from memory as time passes, some remain, popping up at Christmas when cards are exchanged and the phone runs hot. Others, like parents, remain forever a part of us floating in and out of every day; approving, disapproving, supporting, sobbing; their influence colouring each day.

Farming was very hard work here in the early days. I remember Norm Crowe - he lost his arm in a chaff cutting accident. He could do anything, with just one arm. I've seen him yoke up a team of eight horses, putting collars and hames on them, which is a big job with 2 arms. He'd push the collar up, with the two straps to buckle up and he'd grab them and hold them in his teeth, until he could do them up. He lost his arm in a portable chaff cutter, when he was about 20, might have been a bit more. He was working for people named Dowling.