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Note: Letter written by Ethel and found some years after her death.
Ethel.
Born the 7th child of Paddy and Elizabeth Ward on the 7th March 1913 at Blackheath. My parents always went to the mountains each year (to get away from the heat of Nyngan, where they lived at 'Green Camp') They would go for 2 or 3 months.
They used to drive down in a buggy, the older members of the family would ride horses; they also took the nurse, who would attend to my Mother when I was born, Blackheath.
Grew up to the age of 9 or 10; can remember when Kingsford Smith came to Nyngan and the family were going in to see him and his aeroplane, and standing beside the car, it ran over my foot, and so I ended up going to Nyngan too.
Then my first day at school; coming home at the last gate, there was no home; it had been burnt down. My sister, Vera, had driven us in to school and spent the day in town to bring us home.
Then we moved to a place out of Nyngan called 'Beetree'. Well going to school to the Brown St Joseph Nuns, made my First Holy Communion there, and when we left the Nuns gave my Mother this picture (that I have hanging over our bed) of the Sacred Heart. She was very good to them and it was through her that they are still there.
We had a house in Katoomba and lived there for some time, while my Father was looking around for a place, and then he bought 'Melrose Plains'. My brother Bert and I went to school there, when we moved to 'Melrose Plains', we had several governesses. Then I was sent to Forbes to boarding school for 2 years, and then to St Bridget's College, Randwick.
I had a very happy childhood and growing up too.
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