The Australian Women's Weekly September 2019

I’m dedicating this month’s letter to my dad. I’m doing so in honour of Father’s Day, but also because he often bemoans the fact that the only times I’ve written about him previously has been to mock his more unorthodox parenting methods. Like placing a mirror in the middle of our dining table to discourage my sister and I from eating with our mouths open (no one wanted to see us chewing like cows, he reasoned, so we could stare at our own reflections). Or the time he unscrewed my wardrobe doors in protest at the apparent problem I also had with keeping them shut. It’s true that he was not the type of parent who believed in letting kids win just to make them feel better about themselves. Board…

My daughter Emilee was just 16 and working on the cash register at a supermarket. One afternoon, a lovely old lady was having trouble with the payment for her groceries. When her card got declined, Emilee closed off her register and told the lady she would be back in a minute. She went and got her key card and paid for the lot, despite the fact she only works after school and doesn’t have a lot of money. The lady cried and no one at work could believe what my daughter had done. She is so beautiful and her heart is filled with kindness. It shows us that we’ve done something right! Congratulations to Kellie from East Bentleigh, Vic, for sharing daughter Emilee's gesture. Kellie will receive an Australian Women's…

LETTER of the MONTH Since Crown Princess Mary (right, with Princesses Josephine and Isabella) first graced covers everywhere, she has had the makings of a queen (Centre Stage, AWW, August). Her style and fashion sense is beyond reproach. Mary has been a role model for the Danish people. Aware of her duties, battling world issues, she is confident at anything she puts her mind to. She inspires others as well as her husband and children. How proud we are of one of our own. After 15 years of marriage, Mary has done the right thing from start to finish. A.Skerman, Champion Lakes, WA. SALUTE TO SUCCESS The article about Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward resonates so much with me (The Power of Love, AWW, August). I still recall sitting in…

A rollicking royal time IT WAS ALL SMILES in the Royal family this month, with a joyous celebration of Prince George’s sixth birthday. The photograph of George’s romp in the garden was taken by The Duchess of Cambridge at their Kensington Palace home. The palace also shared a family photo taken on holiday (right). Meanwhile, The Duke of Sussex delighted staff and patients at Sheffield Children’s Hospital where he personally signed the same guest book that his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, signed when she visited in 1989. Women putting their best feet forward ACROSS THE COUNTRY women are stepping out to make a change. After the birth of her twin daughters, mother of five Dolly Abboud was told one of the girls, Chanel, would be non-verbal and never walk.…

BABY BUMP Singer Natalie Imbruglia has joyfully announced she is pregnant via IVF, revealing the blessing was something she had wanted for a long time. THOR SOARS Homegrown hero Chris Hemsworth was the second highest paid actor in 2019, according to Forbes, raking in $76.4 million with his hammer-wielding hands. FOREVER 21 Bindi Irwin celebrated her 21st birthday grandly by becoming engaged to Chandler Powell. “On my birthday I said ‘yes’ and ‘forever’ to the love of my life,” she gushed.…

SUZANNE GIBBS WAS HOLDING her mother Margaret Fulton’s hands when she slipped away: “All through my childhood those hands meant so much to me … cooking, cutting, sewing. I treasured those hands … that … were so powerful”. Margaret’s hands influenced us all. The loved youngest of a family of six, Margaret was born in 1924 in the Scottish Highlands and grew up in Glen Innes in country NSW during the Depression, learning the importance of the family meal, and how to shop, cook and think for herself. Eschewing university, she became an X-ray technologist, a secretary and then a cookery demonstrator at the Australian Gas Light Company, lighting the flame for her stellar gastronomic career. She married a guitarist, Trevor Price, and after that first marriage broke down, moved…