This tale has now been recorded. Let me read it to you at Madame Yum’s Insta TV @madameyum

Thanks Clare for posting this faded glory themed pic to #LuxvilleTales. Here is your story.

NORNIE.

Nornie Gude was the Luxville ‘It Girl’. Everyone knew her face. It sold everything from tea to the city itself.

But they didn’t really know her.

They didn’t know that she spent her childhood with a pencil in her hand. All the time drawing her mother at the sink, doing the laundry, drying the dishes. She followed her around, quieter than a mouse. Her mother didn’t like mice.

They didn’t know that later she worked at the local pub, cleaning up after 6pm closing. That was after her father had abandoned them for the promise of gold up north. “Good fer nuthin’ anyway!” Jean would say, “we’ll do better on our own dear Norns, won’t we.”

They didn’t know that she earned enough to support herself and her mother. Jean had by then gotten so ill she could barely dress herself, but the pot of Robur tea always was made for Nornie every morning. “Nuthin’ a pot of tea can’t solve dear Norns, is there love.” Jean would say as they used the good cups for their morning cuppa.

They didn’t know that she used her own coin to put herself through Art School. Nornie was accepted because the Registrar had thought she was a man, afterall she only ever wore trousers, like Jean. She didn’t bother correcting them. “They’ll find out won’t they Jean, then they’ll look silly for not having known.”

And they didn’t know that it was actually her mothers face she drew on posters and billboards advertising anything that could be sold. Because she knew that face better than she knew her own.

LUXVILLE TALES with TALE BY Erin McCuskey and IMAGE BY Clare who has shared this wonderful image from the Federation University Australian Art Collection. The image can be found here, along with information about the real Nornie Gude. http://victoriancollections.net.au/items/534748159821f420f8c03715

Please Note: The #LuxvilleTales are generated from reader contributed images. Post me an image themed ‘faded glory’ and I will write you a short tale. My most fave pic taker will be gifted the ‘Luxville Dolls’ book, due February 2016. Tag it #Luxville & #LuxvilleTales and tag me too! Love Madame Yum