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| It was common for colonial widowers to remarry within five years of their first wife's death, and to marry younger single women.((Peter McDonald and Patricia Quiggin, 'Lifecourse transitions in Victoria in the 1880s', //Families in Colonial Australia// ed. P. Grimshaw, C. McConville and Ellen McEwen, Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1985, pp.74-75.)) But in this case, the age difference was at the extremes. Nora was 27 years younger than her husband and only two years older than her eldest stepson. It was not an easy relationship for any of the family to manage, but it appears to have worked. It helped that Nora gave, to her eldest stepdaughter Rosa Praed at least, the impression of being placid,((Helen Woolcock et al, '"My beloved chloroform': Attitudes to Childbearing in Colonial Queensland', Social History of Medicine Journal,p.440)) although her correspondence suggests that, while ultimately pragmatic, there was a great deal of introspection and emotional turmoil behind her calm surface.\\ | It was common for colonial widowers to remarry within five years of their first wife's death, and to marry younger single women.((Peter McDonald and Patricia Quiggin, 'Lifecourse transitions in Victoria in the 1880s', //Families in Colonial Australia// ed. P. Grimshaw, C. McConville and Ellen McEwen, Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1985, pp.74-75.)) But in this case, the age difference was at the extremes. Nora was 27 years younger than her husband and only two years older than her eldest stepson. It was not an easy relationship for any of the family to manage, but it appears to have worked. It helped that Nora gave, to her eldest stepdaughter Rosa Praed at least, the impression of being placid,((Helen Woolcock et al, '"My beloved chloroform': Attitudes to Childbearing in Colonial Queensland', Social History of Medicine Journal,p.440)) although her correspondence suggests that, while ultimately pragmatic, there was a great deal of introspection and emotional turmoil behind her calm surface.\\ |
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| TLM-P at the time of his second marriage: {{:tlmp_hairy.jpg?250|}} {{:nora_cm-p.jpg?250|}} Nora at a similar time. Her Superintendent of Nursing/Matron at Sydney Hospital, {{https://sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/products/78882|Lucy Osburn}}, wrote in 1873 thanking 'Sister Nora' for sending her photo: from the description, it was this one.((It is wrongly identified as TLM-P's mother Eliza Skynner M-P by State Library of Queensland.)) All surviving photos of her, like this one, were formal ones taken in a photography studio. She dressed with precision and propriety and, perhaps, her cap and relatively sober style was a deliberate attempt to minimise the appearance of the age difference between her and TLM-P. Both were described as tall.\\ | TLM-P at the time of his second marriage: {{:tlmp_hairy.jpg?250|}} {{:nora_cm-p.jpg?250|}}{{:nora1_colour.png?250|}} Nora at a similar time and a **speculative** AI colourised and cleaned up version.((Thanks to John Cameron)) Her Superintendent of Nursing/Matron at Sydney Hospital, {{https://sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/products/78882|Lucy Osburn}}, wrote in 1873 thanking 'Sister Nora' for sending her photo: from the description, it was this one.((It is wrongly identified as TLM-P's mother Eliza Skynner M-P by State Library of Queensland.)) All surviving photos of her, like this one, were formal ones taken in a photography studio. She dressed with precision and propriety and, perhaps, her cap and relatively sober style was a deliberate attempt to minimise the appearance of the age difference between her and TLM-P. Both were described as tall.\\ |
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| Part of Nora's success as a second wife and stepmother was her adaptability, boosted by her having had a much less sheltered life than many middle-class women in the Victorian age.\\ | Part of Nora's success as a second wife and stepmother was her adaptability, boosted by her having had a much less sheltered life than many middle-class women in the Victorian age.\\ |