Page 18. Perhaps with his mother’s suffering in mind, on May 13 1928, William wrote this poem:

 
AS A SPARK
 
See, the world is full of woe,
Far and wide,
Let us then while we are here
Strive the weary hearts to cheer
Let us all our kindness show,
Not our pride.
 
Though the world be sad and dark,
Let us all,
Hasten each to make our light
Shed its glow through gloom of night
Be it only as a spark,
Bright though small.
 
Anthology of poems by W.H.Graham
 

Clara, being a daughter, was probably not offered the opportunity of a university education. She apparently studied Pitman’s shorthand but whether she used any secretarial skills in employment, I don’t know. I know that at the age of 26, after her mother died in 1928, she became the housekeeper for her father and brother.

She became very close friends with Ada Dennis, my mother’s sister and there are many photographs of them enjoying sunny days at church picnics. Clara became engaged to a young man and life looked good. However, the sunny days were not to last. At 29 years of age she developed tuberculosis. When he discovered her condition, her fiancé left, breaking her heart.

Clara’s final days were spent in the Austin Hospital at Heidelberg. Her doctor, Alan Penington, recorded her as dying of pulmonary tuberculosis (4 years) and pyropneumothorax (8 months). Pyropneumothorax is an accumulation of pus and air in the pleural cavity, the space between the chest wall and the lungs. This builds up as a result of the tuberculosis and when the pressure outside the lung becomes greater than that inside, the lung collapses. This would have been a painful, stressful illness, causing shortness of breath and lack of oxygen. Her poor father John and brother William had to watch her and nurse her as she suffered from this for eight months, and before that, the general misery of four years of tuberculosis. She died on 19 May 1936. Her occupation was shown as “home duties” I have always felt close to my aunt Clara as I was named Stephanie Clare, after her.

Clara Graham

At church picnic with (far left) best friend Ada Dennis

Clara Annie Graham aged 16

With father, John Graham and brother William at Ross Street