My family was very big. Apart from my grandmother and parents, there were ten children- I was the second eldest. My father was a teacher and the only one working to support the thirteen of us so we didn't have much money to spare. We had to be thrifty, to share and to look after everything in the house, because anything broken could not be easily replaced.
Once, when i was playing chasey with my little sister, i was running and jumping wildly and split the seam of my long skirt. It was then that my grandmother sat me down and told me for the first time the story of the two wives. You were a very careless little girl, she said. you must watch out or you will end up like the lazy wife of the fisherman. I heard the story many times after that. if I didn't hold a plate properly and it seemed I might drop it, my mother or grandmother would never scold me. They'd just say very gently that i was careless, then sit me down and remind me of the story. and i in turn would tell it to my little sister if she left her play dough scattered over the floor or did something else lazy or untidy.
I still remember this story very often. If I make clothes for myself and finish them off carelessly or buy things that aren't really necessary I think, 'If mother or grandmother were here, they'd remind me that i've been extravagant.' I can stop myself buying things by remembering the story. I say to my self, 'You're spending too much, just like that fisherman's first wife. If you spind all you earn, where will you go when help you out but here we have no one. There is just the bank and you can only get from there what you've put in. You have to be independent in Australia.So you see the story of the merchant's wife and the fishermanl's wife still teaches me so much. I Thank my grandmother and my mother for telling it to me.
