Louise Howard Niles

Louise Niles was born in Barbados on February 1, 1911. On the matter of her age, she was quick to add at the interview:

    "Me and Reagan the same age!"

Louise came to Sydney in 1948 and took up residence at 23 Lingan Road. She came from Barbados where she had been widowed, to be married again. Asked how she met her new husband, she said:

             "Him?  It was something.  It was through

              a friend.  We were school mates before.

              She was over here before me and then 

              she came back home.  He wanted someone 

              so she asked me if I want to come.  I took 

              a chance and I didn't regret.  A good 

             old boy.  I didn't regret."

Her husband was named as Belfine Niles. He had come to Sydney in 1926 from Barbados to work in the steel mills.

In her new home in Sydney, Louise (who had a daughter from her previous marriage) adopted two children from a foster home. While her husband worked, Louise brought up her two adopted children. She spoke about them during the interview saying that the boy she had adopted when he was ten months old died in an accident ten years before the interview (i.e., in 1972) while the girl she adopted was living in Toronto in 1982. Her biological daughter was put through school in Barbados and was living in Truro in 1982.

When her husband's health began to fail, the roles changed : he stayed at home and she went to work:

             "I was a seamstress at Koolex, a laundry and

              dry-cleaning, until I retired... I went out and 

              helped while he was around home, had a 

              condition, and that's how we made out.'

Louise continued as seamstress after her husband died in 1963, though her own health was affected by arthritis.

Louise Niles remembered how things had changed in Sydney from 1948 to 1982. She spoke of these changes as being for the better and said that she was quite comfortable and happy in Sydney, her adopted home:

               "I feel right comfortable here.'

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