Catholic Outlook March 2016
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DIOCESAN NEWS<br />
Maria Lette celebrates 100 years of life<br />
By Elizabeth McFarlane<br />
The lines on her face tell the<br />
story. It was her smile that<br />
drew me in, shortly followed<br />
by her piercing blue eyes.<br />
Maria Christina Lette has<br />
an enduring gaze and her wispy,<br />
silver hair can be said to match her<br />
silver-tongue.<br />
After another flash of the<br />
camera, she quipped: “Have you got<br />
your money’s worth yet?”<br />
It was a lively jest.<br />
Maria’s youngest child, Theresa<br />
Brazell, and her second eldest,<br />
Alphons Lette, quickly chimed in.<br />
Maria Christina Lette celebrated her 100th birthday last month with more than 200 family<br />
members. Maria’s secret to a long life could be a large and loving family.<br />
Photo: Elizabeth McFarlane.<br />
“She’s always had such a<br />
great sense of humour!” Theresa<br />
exclaimed.<br />
“She’s never given up the fun,”<br />
Alphons said with a chuckle.<br />
Maria celebrated her 100th<br />
birthday on 6 February at St<br />
Anthony’s Church, Toongabbie, with<br />
more than 200 family members. She<br />
was presented with a Papal Blessing<br />
from the Parish Priest, Rev Arthur<br />
Bridge.<br />
With 12 children, 56<br />
grandchildren and 99 greatgrandchildren<br />
(and the 100th on<br />
the way), Maria’s secret to a long life<br />
could very well be a large and loving<br />
family.<br />
“We mix so much together. To<br />
keep in touch with each other we<br />
had a family newsletter going out<br />
every fortnight for quite a few years,”<br />
Alphons said.<br />
Maria was born in 1916 in<br />
the Netherlands, growing up in a<br />
town called Hengelo, which is east<br />
of Amsterdam and close to the<br />
German border.<br />
Her parents, Maria and Hendrick<br />
Boevink, had 11 children.<br />
It was a different time. Maria<br />
grew up hearing the clattering<br />
hooves of horses pulling bread and<br />
milk carts in the early morning.<br />
She would ride her bike around<br />
the town, passing corner stores and<br />
the market in the town square where<br />
her family would buy fruit and<br />
vegetables.<br />
She was 19 when she attended<br />
the local dance hall and met<br />
Herman, the love of her life and the<br />
father of her 12 children. Herman<br />
was a machinist who made silk<br />
stockings.<br />
When Maria was 23 they married<br />
and went on to raise 10 children<br />
before deciding to migrate to<br />
Australia.<br />
“In the mid-1950s, nylon was<br />
invented. It went from silk stockings<br />
to nylon stockings and the factory<br />
my Dad was working in started to<br />
install the new machines," Alphons<br />
said.<br />
"But that meant they would need<br />
less than half of the staff. Six of the<br />
machinists, including my Dad, came<br />
to Australia because Holeproof<br />
in Sydney was still making silk<br />
stockings."<br />
Once in Australia, Maria and<br />
Herman had two more children<br />
and in 1959 they bought a house in<br />
Toongabbie, just a 10-minute walk<br />
from St Anthony’s Church.<br />
“We’re very involved in the<br />
parish. Prayer and church were<br />
foremost with both our parents.<br />
Toongabbie Parish means a lot to<br />
us,” Theresa said.<br />
Almost all of Maria’s children<br />
were married in St Anthony’s<br />
Church, as well as many of her<br />
grandchildren. Even some of<br />
her great-grandchildren have<br />
been baptised and received other<br />
sacraments in the parish.<br />
Maria and Herman were married<br />
for 32 years before Herman died of a<br />
heart attack in 1971 at the age of 57.<br />
“It was sudden. I was 11,” Theresa<br />
said.<br />
“Mum did it pretty rough at the<br />
time,” Alphons said. “But she kept us<br />
all together."<br />
Theresa said Maria's biggest<br />
regret was that Herman was not<br />
there to share this special occasion.<br />
"She always says, ‘My family is<br />
wonderful but Dad should be here<br />
with me,’” she said.<br />
Maria’s 100th birthday was an<br />
opportunity for her extended family<br />
to come together to celebrate her<br />
long and blessed life.<br />
“There was a lot of catching up<br />
to do between the cousins and the<br />
grandkids,” Alphons said.<br />
The celebrations concluded<br />
with lunch at a restaurant in Seven<br />
Hills where Maria was presented<br />
with congratulatory letters from<br />
the Queen, the Prime Minister,<br />
the Governor-General, the NSW<br />
Premier, and other political<br />
dignitaries from both houses of<br />
parliament.<br />
Diocesan Development Fund<br />
<strong>Catholic</strong> Diocese of Parramatta<br />
Supporting the<br />
growing needs of the<br />
institutions and agencies within<br />
the <strong>Catholic</strong> Diocese of Parramatta<br />
www.parra.catholic.org.au/ddf<br />
Disclosure Statement<br />
The Diocesan Development Fund <strong>Catholic</strong> Diocese of Parramatta (DDF) is not subject to the provisions of the Corporation Act 2001 nor has it been examined or approved<br />
by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.<br />
Deposits with the DDF are guaranteed by CDPF Limited, a company established by the Australian <strong>Catholic</strong> Bishops Conference for this purpose.<br />
We welcome your investment with the DDF rather than with a profit oriented commercial organisation as a conscious commitment by you to support the Charitable,<br />
Religious and Educational works of the <strong>Catholic</strong> Church.<br />
Neither the DDF nor the Trustees of the Roman <strong>Catholic</strong> Church for the Diocese of Parramatta are prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority;<br />
contributions to the DDF do not obtain the benefit of the depositor protection provisions of the Banking Act 1959; the DDF is designed for investors who wish to promote<br />
the charitable purposes of the DDF.<br />
ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL<br />
MASS TIMES AND REGULAR SERVICE<br />
Weekend Masses<br />
Saturday 8am, 9:30am<br />
(Mass in the Extraordinary Form – Latin),<br />
6pm (Vigil) Sunday 8am, 9.30am (Family<br />
Mass), 11am (Solemn Mass), 6pm<br />
Weekday Masses<br />
Monday to Friday 6.45am,12.30pm<br />
Public Holidays 8am<br />
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament<br />
Monday to Friday 11.15am-12.20pm<br />
First Friday of the month 6pm-7pm<br />
Sacrament of Penance<br />
Weekdays 11.15am-12.20pm<br />
Saturdays 8.30am-9am, 5pm-5.30pm<br />
Devotions<br />
Morning Prayer of the Church<br />
Monday to Friday 6.30am<br />
Saturday and Sunday 7.30am<br />
Angelus<br />
Monday to Friday noon<br />
Rosary<br />
Monday to Friday after Angelus at noon<br />
Canticle of Our Lady’s Marian Movement<br />
Friday 1pm<br />
Christian meditation<br />
Tuesday 9.30am-10.15am<br />
Baptism - Sunday 12.45pm by appointment<br />
Marriages - By appointment<br />
Contact the Parish Secretary<br />
tel (02) 8839 8400 or email<br />
1 Marist Place, Parramatta<br />
16 <strong>Catholic</strong><strong>Outlook</strong> | MARCH <strong>2016</strong><br />
www.catholicoutlook.org