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George Starritt described his mother as an extremely shy and
timid person, and it must have taken a lot of courage on her part to sail to
Australia alone, but was fortunate to have a brother in the Ballarat area. The
closeness of the Gregg and Starritt families can be seen by the family tree of
the Gregg family. A first cousin of Catherine, Mattie, married Robert's brother,
Alexander, while her grandfather was married for the second time to Peggy
Starritt. She must have been particularly close to her cousin Richard and his
wife Caroline, who died 'in New Zealand in 1913 as the card below was sent to
Catherine when he died.
Like most women of her time she worked hard with none of the
modern conveniences known today, to rear her children. Especially when they
first moved to NorthWest Mooroopna and they had to live under the wagon and in a
lean too for a time.
She trained the girls not only in the house but also to help.
with the milking and butter and cheese making. The Starritt brand of butter was
greatly sought after in Shepparton and Mooroopna.
Three years after George's marriage when there were three
generations living in the home and a full time nurse for Robert, she decided to
move to a house in Maude Street Shepparton, where she lived a quite life until
her death on 25/8/18.
Catherine was buried in the Shepparton cemetery.
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