EARLY one morning in the late 1880s, Dorothy Harding accepted a bunch of flowers from John Evans. She was four years old, he was five.
John’s family lived on a farm at Tallegalla and his three mile walk to school took him past the Cabanda home, where a new family had just moved in.
John was entranced by their youngest daughter who everyone called Dorothy. He would later learn that was her second name, as her first name was Lilla.
Dorothy or Lilla, he didn’t care, he was enchanted.
And it seems that enchantment grew into love, as 26 years later their parents announced the engagement of Lilla Dorothy Harding to John William Evans.
It would be an engagement that lasted five years until June 28, 1911, when Reverend Silas Muscio from the Tallegalla Methodist Church performed their marriage ceremony in the Harding home.
Dorothy and John lived with John’s parents.
“We had the house enlarged and when father died in 1919, the family agreed that I could have the farm at a price,” recalled John when reminiscing about that time many decades later.
The couple and their growing family stayed on the farm for another four years until they established a mechanics garage in Rosewood.
Their life revolved around the garage and their new home in Matthew Street, around their family, and around their church and their community.
John’s early enchantment had grown into an unwavering love and the couple’s devotion to God and his church is part of the back story of a beautifully crafted, stained glass window in today’s Rosewood Uniting Church.
An inscription on the glasswork states: ‘In appreciation of Lilla Dorothy Evans (born 10/5/1884) as a Church Worker, Wife and Mother. Donated by her husband John W. Evans and family 10.05.1958’.
The other part of the window’s back story involves the church.
The window was originally hung in the Tallegalla Methodist Church.
When the church closed in May 1981, it had become the Tallegalla Uniting Church, just as the Rosewood Congregational Church had become the Rosewood Uniting Church.
And so, the window was installed in Tallegalla’s sister church in Rosewood.
In his reminiscence all those years later, John would recall that Dorothy passed away in the Laidley General Hospital on September 18, 1967.
“She had been a good, happy mother of 12 children and lived a good Christian life.
“She is sadly missed by all … especially me.”
John and Dorothy were married for 56 years.
John passed away on November 26, 1969.
He was buried beside his wife in the picturesque Tallegalla Cemetery.
