Our mum, local former Mullum High teacher, Mary Cumpstay, celebrated her 100th on December 4, 2023.
Born Phyllis Mary Sanderson in WA to Richard Sanderson (a schoolteacher) and Maude Sanderson (nee Foote), mum’s father died when she was 16 years old.
From a small country school, she gained a scholarship to Perth Modern School. She boarded with her grandparents during this time.
After gaining her teaching certificate, she taught English at Princess May Girl’s State School in Fremantle, while attending university, where she gained distinctions, majoring in psychology and philosophy.
She then travelled east to NSW, where she taught at Lismore High School for a short time, before being assigned to Crown Street Junior High Girls School in Sydney.
However, by that time, she had already fallen in love with the Northern Rivers area. She requested a transfer back to the Northern Rivers and the NSW Education Department sent her to Mullumbimby High School to ‘get rid of her’.
It was here she met our dad, Clifford Cumpstay, proprietor of the local taxi business. They fell in love, and were married by the end of the year on December 31, 1953 at Subiaco Methodist Church in Perth, where her parents had married.
At that time, women had to resign once they married, so mum helped dad run the taxi business, while also raising four children. To keep her mind active, she did a writing course, sold a number of short stories to magazines and wrote the ‘great Australian novel!’
They drove across the Nullarbor, to visit mum’s relatives, with four children under the age of seven, before proper roads were constructed. Dad played the organ at the local Uniting Church, and mum was a lay preacher and occasionally the organist. They were well known and respected throughout the community.
Retired in 1978
Mum went back to teaching at Mullum High in 1967, where she taught geography and economics until she retired in 1978.
Following her retirement, both mum and dad travelled to England to visit dad’s heritage in Manchester and then on to Europe. They became members of the Mullumbimby Bowls Club, where they played regularly, winning many games. Mum went on to coach many people how to play bowls and qualified as an umpire.
Mum and dad moved to Cabarita Beach in 1984, and enjoyed travelling around Australia in their campervan and playing bowls.
When women became eligible to be board members in clubs, mum was the first female on the board of directors at Cabarita Beach Bowls Club.
Soon after dad died, over 22 years ago, aged almost 91, mum moved to a retirement village in Kingscliff. She enjoyed independent living, continuing to play bowls, being involved with Meals on Wheels, and going on small group bus trips, including to Tasmania, Canberra and local destinations.
In July this year, aged 99 and a half, mum reluctantly moved into Raffles Aged Care in Tweed Heads owing to her frailty.
She is still very alert, and offers a lifetime of interesting information and experience to anyone who wants to listen.
She reads the paper daily, and completes both the straight and cryptic crosswords. She always has a book or two on the go, and enjoys codeword puzzles (clueless crossword).
Happy birthday, mum!
