Irene was born on 27 June 1931, the third of five children of Herbert and Ruby Oppy. She grew up at 5 Corris Street, Yarraville and attended St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School. When WWII arrived, her father enlisted in the army and fought and died in the battle of El Alamein in Egypt in 1942, leaving her mother, a widow with five young children. Irene’s mother showed great resilience at this time, and this is a quality that Irene inherited.
After finishing primary school, Irene did a secretarial course at St Columba’s College in Essendon, leaving school at aged 15. She worked at a number of places including the Dept of Labour and National Service, where she worked until she married, and was forced to give up work, as married women were not allowed to work in the public service, but she loved working, and the independence that came with it.
Irene and Pat, her husband, met at a dance on 3 May 1953, at St Brendan’s in Flemington. Their courtship was full of dances, and plenty of tennis at St Joseph’s Tennis Club in West Brunswick, and lots of travel to tennis tournaments around Victoria. They married on 8 December,1956 and honeymooned in Adelaide so they could attend the Davis Cup.
They built a family home in Blackburn and five children followed in nine years – Brenda, Michael, Genevieve, Mary, and Anne; these were hectic but happy days. Irene and Pat had lots of friends in the neighbourhood, and the house was regularly filled with guests. However, as Irene was a severe asthmatic, and on doctor’s advice, the family moved in 1969 to Perth where the warmer climate was much better for her health. There, she became a yoga and vegetable juice devotee. She was a woman ahead of her time.
Irene and Pat embraced their new community and became central to the life of the Holy Rosary Parish in Doubleview. Pat worked on the construction of the new parish church, Our Lady of the Rosary, as the surveyor. Sadly, Pat passed away in 1973 around the time the new church was opened.
Irene, like her mother was widowed at 41, with five young children (also four girls and a boy), with no family help and no career to provide financial security. The emotional toll of losing her adored husband would have been hard enough, let alone everything else, but her family say she moved seamlessly into taking responsibility as a single parent, and stayed calm, patient and positive throughout. She made the decision to return to Melbourne to be closer to family, settling in Bloom Street, Moonee Ponds.
The family had many happy years at Bloom Street. Irene, always rising at 5.00 am to drink seven cups of tea, read the tea leaves, and declare that dawn was the best part of the day. She loved nothing more than being in and witnessing the wonders of nature, the warmth of the winter sun as she sat in the backyard reading the paper, regularly going to the local park with the grandkids, or heading into the Botanical and Fitzroy Gardens and conservatory. She loved the beach, witnessing sunrises, sunsets and rainbows.
Irene became a key part of Monicare, a social support group run by the local parish in Moonee Ponds, visiting the sick and elderly, cooking meals for people in need, always done modestly and without any fuss or need for recognition. Anyone who wandered up to the back door at Bloom Street was welcomed and she would offer her home to anyone who needed somewhere to stay – to friends of hers and friends of her children, and sometimes to people she didn’t even know. One of the many was David McAllister, future artistic director of the Australian Ballet who lived with the family for two years and wrote about his happy years at Bloom Street.
Irene’s family say she walked very gently on this earth – she was unintentionally a conservationist, “we imagine her consumer footprint over 93 years is probably less than most humans a third of her age today.”
Having been raised in the Depression and living through World War 2 she lived by the mantra of waste not want not. She was careful with what she used, she cooked from scratch, grew gardens from seeds or cuttings and for most of her life sewed and knitted most of what she and her children wore. She walked most places or caught public transport.
Irene loved to travel. Before she was married, she had holidays at Mount Baw Baw and in far north Queensland, before family life took over for the next couple of decades. She took a trip to England to visit her sister Brenda in 1976 and finally made it to Europe in 1993, when she was 62, and absolutely loved it. She made many friends along the way and returned to Europe the following year.
Irene loved many things, but above all else, she loved her family.
Her children say she was always there for everyone’s milestones, whether walking her daughters down the aisle, knitting a jumper for the grandkids or having them over for a sleepover. She always took an interest in everyone’s lives. Her love for her family was really only tested when she had to go into aged care.
Her children say she was made of titanium, that underneath her frail exterior, in her 90s she had an incredible constitution – she had the heart of a lion. Irene was genuinely a happy person – a great talker and in recent years she would frequently say to her family, unsolicited – “I’m happy – I’ve had a great life”. They say she never sought out attention, but people of all ages and backgrounds were drawn to her. She was genuine and kind and wise and didn’t sweat the small stuff. When the grandchildren arrived, she was entirely present when she was with them. And they adored her right back.
Her children are comforted in the knowledge that Irene is resting peacefully now.
“From all of us – we love you and we thank you Mum, our Nana and great grandmother.”
Eulogy from Irene’s funeral on Thursday, 5 June at Our Holy Redeemer Church, Surrey Hills
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Kerry Bourke says:
What a beautiful story of a beautiful woman! May God be blessed for her life and bless her family!