The Telegram
My first job after finishing school, while waiting to be old enough to start nursing training, involved receiving telegrams via telephone and typing them for dispatch at the PMG office in the heart of Melbourne. This bustling workplace had a workforce of around 50 individuals, predominantly women, who operated the telephones. You paid by the word sent, so they were usually brief. Today, the memory of receiving telegrams has primarily faded from people's minds. In fact, my last encounter with a telegram was during my first wedding in 1973. Grace Sandra perished last nights tragedy, heartfelt sympathy broken hearted writing love Stan This telegram my grandmother kept in her box of keepsakes for 40 years; the day it arrived, she went into shock, and her hair went white overnight. Grace Rebeca Spooner, my mother's eldest sister, married a dashing young airman from Perth who arrived in Mildura to undergo ...