Nola Jasmine Hosking (nee Finlay) 10 April 1939 - 23 August 2019
Born Midland 10 April 1939. Died Perth 23 August 2019.
Mother of three, grandmother of three.
Teacher, writer, choir member, West Coast Eagles fan.
Loyal servant to a number of cats.
Eulogy
Nola was born in Midland on April 10 1939 to Wilfrid Lennard Finlay and Hope Lina Finlay. Her dad owned a farm and vineyard and served as a police officer, her grandfather a customs officer and Nola’s great grandfather the first mayor of Albany.
On Nola’s mum’s side her grandparents met when they grew up in Broken Hill When Nola’s grandfather was hired to work on the Western Australian railways, her grandma was just fifteen, the day before her 16th birthday they married and together shifted to Perth. They arrived in 1880. Nola’s Grandma and Grandpa had twelve children. Nola’s mum was number 10.
Nola grew up in West Swan and attended Guildford primary school. Her brother Bruce was 12 years older so she was the only child around and with no TV had to keep herself entertained.
She join the Argonauts’ Radio Club and began writing down stories she had always made up in her head.
When she was aged 11, her parents moved to Waterman, living opposite the beach. She learnt to swim, and to love the sea.
Nola went to Perth Girls’ School in East Perth, the nearest High School in those days. It took about an hour and a half to travel each way. For years 11 and 12, she attended Perth Modern School in Subiaco and she continued writing for the Argonauts’ Club until it closed down when she was 16.
Nola joined The Comrades of Saint George, a missionary group, and aimed to be a missionary. Instead, she trained as a teacher and taught in several school around Perth her first class was Year Two at North Beach. There were 54 children in the class.
In 1961, Nola married Lindsay and they moved into their new house in Yokine before moving to Wembley Downs and then City Beach. Along the way came 3 children Ralph, Kaye and David. During this time Dodo, their much loved cat joined their family and would be a large part of it for the next 20 years.
While the children were small, the family lived in inner-city Sydney for two years, Albury, NSW, for five years and then South Mandurah.
In the late 1980’s Nola and Lindsay parted ways. On her death Lindsay would say he had now lost Nola twice.
Nola shifted to Safety Bay later East Fremantle and then Daglish. Teaching special needs children, tutoring and continually writing.
Nola loved writing, along the way she would have many children’s stories published, get very close to selling a kids TV series and then be flown to Sydney and awarded a major national price for authoring a historical novel Masked Armed and Dangerous.
Nola continued to be published every year, frequently being asked to submit ideas and selling scripts and articles to magazines in Australia and the United States right through to this year.
In June Nola’s last article would be published in the WA Diabetes Magazine.
God has been a big part of Nola’s life as she has always been involved in church life usually in the choir. At Saint Nicholas church in Rockingham as a Pastoral Assistant where she helped the minister take services to people in aged care.
Nola’s children, their partners and grandchildren would make the following observations;
Nola always helped whomever needed it, from teaching special needs kids, tutoring kids needing to catch up or visiting the lonely in aged care. A few years ago Nola on hearing that no one wanted her, adopted her current dis-functional cat.
Its name is Cleopatra but she answers to nothing.
If you have the pleasure of cat sitting Cleo she hides until 2am then climbs onto you and screams in your face.
In time Nola’s special needs cat would sit beside her for hours as she would write.
Two years ago David and his weirdly large cat shifted in next door to Nola. Nola and Cthulhu became close friends as Cthulhu became a spoilt “grand kitty” and mysteriously began to gain weight.
David meanwhile gradually learned how to relax and smile as he joined Nola’s grand children in an endless pursuit of hidden keys and glasses.
Nola was a mother of three, grandmother of three. Teacher, writer, choir member, West Coast Eagles fan and loyal servant to a number of cats.
Some of us barely know her, some of us have known her for years, some of us for decades, some of us of all our lives.
We've travelled with her, disagreed with her, laughed with her and sung with her.
We've fixed her computer, tuned her television, mowed her lawn, cleaned her house, and debated the shortcuts in feeding the cat.
We've been close, we've been distant, and sometimes both.
She's been a teacher, a wife, a mother, a choir member, a writer, an Eagles fan, our instructor, our antagonist, our friend but most of all, mum and nanna.
Qualifications
Four-year-trained Primary Teacher.
Graduate Diploma in Special Education (Edith Cowan University, WA)
Professional Organisations
The Australian Writers’ Guild (1988)
The Australian Society of Authors (2001)
Information
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