JourneyOnline
Enid Vivia Lloyd-Anthony 24 December 1907 – 29 March 2007
"Thank you for coming." These were the words that Auntie Viv always said when I was leaving she would add "Do come again," but on Tuesday she didn’t add them – she said "I love you" and then "Goodbye".
So, she seemed to know that the end was near. In her incredible faith she knew her wait for Him to come was drawing to a close. He came on Thursday morning.
Enid Vivia Hooper was born on 24/12/1907 the second daughter of Norman and Ellen Hooper. She was to have 4 younger brothers and she outlived all her siblings.
She told me that she started school with her sister, Connie. The teacher told her mother that Vivia could come sometimes with Con – big mistake. Vivia thought Mother was glad to get her off to school so she went every day. She developed a life-long love of books and her ability with figures stayed with her – she could add a column of figures in her head quite quickly even well into her nineties.
On finishing school she was "apprenticed" into teaching and she started at North Ipswich State School. It was a great training and she later taught at country schools and she told me of long days catching a train, then walking long distances to and from school.
Always having attended the Congregational Church she developed an interest in missionary work and went to India with the London Missionary Society. Here she met and married Tony – a fellow missionary. They married in India and continued to work there until the Second World War. They were sent to England and lived and worked there during the blitz. Vivia remembered her time to Wales and England as a very interesting period despite blackouts and uncertainties of travel to take services in country towns and villages.
After the war they returned to India for many more years before coming back to Queensland and serving in Rosewood and Toowoomba and Redcliffe and retiring to her old home in Quarry Street.
Vivia then assisted her cousin Keith at Brassall Church and I remember her in this role until well into her 70s and perhaps 80s. She also kept busy with sewing, crochet and tatting. Crosswords and books continued to be among her favourite pastimes.
Nowlanvil become her home 11 years ago, after living alone for about 20 years following the loss of Tony to cancer. The care and love she received here contributed to her long and contented life.
She saw so many changes in her life – from the Horse Bus to school to watching F1-11s do burn outs, to name but one and she kept an open mind and accepted developments as they came. It is impossible to tell of her long life in so few words, but to me the word she always brought to mind was "Faith".
