Una's story

You’re like you are, so you’ve got to accept it…

As the youngest of eight children, with a mum and dad who worked full time, Una Cowdroy recalls watching on as her sisters and their friends and boyfriends went about busy lives.

For years Una hated growing up, all she could see were her sisters getting married and having children - things she wanted for herself. Schooling was basic and hard work, much of it done by correspondence. Encouraged to accept the limits of what she could achieve, Una wanted more.

Then at 20, everything changed. Una found out about the Orana club through a friend. She joined, and a regular round of dinners, theatre shows, picnics and holidays began: “That was the start of my life”. Through the Club Una met Gordon and they agreed to get married - something Una’s mum didn’t think would ever happen. It felt good, as did making an independent home and life together.

Many firsts followed, including overseas travel - a six week trip down the west coast of America in 1969 with a group of 28 friends, “sort of educated American people!” says Una.

Una and Gordon came to the Tweed in 1991. They love it and could never move back to the ‘rat race’ of Sydney.

Asked about her greatest achievements, Una readily identifies defying expectations. She proved her mum wrong when she got married, and things have turned out differently than for many of her sisters. While the hopes and dreams she had for becoming a nurse couldn’t be, and they don’t have children, Una and Gordon remain happily married.

Una's interview

In 2016, as part of the Untold Stories: living with ability project, the Tweed Regional Museum undertook a series of oral history interviews.

The following excerpt is transcribed from the audio recording of the interview with Una Cowdroy on 16 June 2016.

In the interview, conducted by Suzi Hudson, Una talks about the challenges of growing up in a large family; high school via correspondence at the Spastic Centre in Mosman in the early 1960s; and travelling to the USA and Canada with a group of 28 disabled friends in 1969. 

My hero

The photograph of Una leaning against her Dad’s knee was taken at Una’s eldest sister’s wedding in 1953. The photograph was treasured by Una’s father John, with whom she was particularly close. He kept it beside his bed until the day he died, in 1993.

One of the ways Una came to terms with losing her beloved father was to write a letter to him after he died. Addressed to ‘My Hero My Dad’, the letter was Una’s way of thanking her dad for all he had done for her. 

Una’s daughter Una

The christening cup is special to Una as it belonged to her mother, also called Una. It bears Una’s mother’s christening date in 1915. The cup came to Una following her mother’s death.

Una says of her mum, “I loved my Mum but she didn’t give me much encouragement. She said… ‘Well, you know, you’re like you are, and that’s how you’ve got to accept it.’ You know, that really hurt, but that’s the way it went.”

The christening cup is also precious because Una and her husband Gordon have moved numerous times over the years and many things, including photographs of Una’s extraordinary overseas trip to the USA and Canada in 1969, have not survived the moves!