Joachim Newsletter

Edition; 17                                                                                  
Date; November 2007

Dear Family

In this newsletter;

Article: “Rebecca Joachim 1879 – 1949 At Rest in St.Kilda Cemetery” by Keith Chapman.  Apologies to Merle and Keith as to the altered layout of the article.  My computer had problems when I came to cut and paste.  (The computer is in poor health and I feel like Basil Fawlty in the episode when he is talking to his car; I am speaking very nicely but firmly to the computer!)

Website Updates
: There are a number of new articles on the Joachim and the Ottolangui websites.  Click on below to view them, they make such interesting reading.

www.oocities.org/lzbthjoachim/


www.oocities.org/ottolangui2002/


Rebecca Joachim 1879-1949
At Rest in St.Kilda Cemetery

Rebecca Joachim was my Aunty Becky. She was very tiny, about 5 ft.1. (in the old scale) very timid, very quiet and only spoke when she was spoken to. She never married, devoting her life to the care of her sisters.

In the early 1920’s my Father, Bert Chapman, my Mother Cissie (Susan Joachim) and myself moved from Melbourne to Sydney. Bert was originally from Sydney and wished to be nearer his Mother. However they found it difficult to settle. Cissie missed her sisters, Matilda, Sarah and Becky, so they returned to Melbourne in 1927/28, moving to a house in Ellesmere Road, Windsor. My Mother became ill and was and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Aunty Becky came to live with us. We moved to a house in Dandenong Road in 1931/1932 (5 doors up from the cemetery), Becky moved with us and gradually took over the running of the household.

I joined the Army in 1941 (during World War II), Mother became so ill she was hospitalised. Dad decided to give up the home in late 1944, so Becky then went to live with her sister Matilda Bloom (who always played a dominant role in her life) at no.4 Crimea Street St.Kilda where she lived for the rest of her life.

Looking back now I realise what a significant role, in her own quiet way, Aunty Becky played in my young life. I think I must have been quite a handful because the only time I remember her raising her voice was to call out to Mum:
“Cissie - Keith’s at the biscuits”.

Keith Chapman


[Thanks to Liz James who supplied the additional details and artwork]

Jenny Cowen
Should any of Rebecca’s family wish to visit her grave, it is in the St.Kilda Cemetery in Melbourne, it is located at: 4  42  V17.
The inscription on her grave reads:

Rebecca Joachim
Our sister
Rivka bat Avraham