Jo’s is a story about a city girl who comes to a country town in the time of isolation and social distancing and still manages to find a community; and with a whole lot of love, Mediterranean soup and an annual “Biggest Morning Tea“, makes it an even better place to be.
Jo and husband Stephen arrived in St Leonards – having bought a holiday house – ten years ago. Steve moved full time in 2018 as he had secured a contract with a concrete company in Waurn Ponds which required that he live close enough. Jo who was working with the Education Department as an Education Support worker (inclusion, achievement and wellbeing of students with disability and additional needs at school) did not want to leave her students so stayed on till the end of the year, coming back and forth from Caroline Springs to St Leonards Thursday to Sunday. Once Jo finished work in December, the move began. Jo moved in and then three months later COVID happened.
‘Steve is a country boy from Nathalia, and I’m a city girl from Oak Park. Steve was always trying to get back to the country and a simpler life. We used to go camping, in a tent – Steve, me and our three kids. Now the kids have grown up and moved away but Steve and I still camp though now it’s in the luxury of roof-top tenting. I wasn’t convinced I’d suit living in a small country town, but it turns out I love it.’
Jo’s parents came from the southern Italian region of Calabria; her mother from a small town and her father from the city. Her mother never spoke about her town. Jo spoke only her parent’s dialect but learnt ‘proper Italian’ later in life. She had waited years to go to Italy and did so for the first time last year. She said she and Steve ‘had the best time’, spending six weeks in Europe all together, and it was ‘amazing.’ It left her wishing she’d ‘put more effort into history classes at school.’ As her parents had rarely talked the places where they came from, Steve and Jo only allowed one day in each area. But there they found Jo’s cousins her father’s house and her mother’s town which is a gothic village established in the 800s ‘which blew our minds.’ Jo collected sea-glass on a Calabrian beach, and plans to make something with them in one of Rebecca Campbell’s workshops soon. If only the glass could speak, imagine the stories they could tell. Jo said she ‘needs to go back to find out more’ about her parents’ place of origin. Laughing – as she does often and heartily – she says Steve understands her more now, particularly her capacity to ‘yak yak yak.’
Jo’s mother Cathy came to Australia at the age of eight with her parents on a ship. Her father Luigi was sixteen when he came with his parents also by ship ‘and he still has a thick accent’. They each arrived in Port Melbourne. Both her maternal and paternal grandfathers came ahead of their families finding work, generally as labouring jobs, her paternal grandfather on the railways, and a place to live before bringing the rest of the family out as was the way at the time, and still is for many migrants. Jo is only now really starting to learn about her family history. She has found her maternal grandfather’s original address which was St Leonards Parade in Ascot Vale – surely a sign of things to come. They then moved to Essendon. Her paternal grandparents lived in North Melbourne.
Growing up, Jo’s parents had a general store in Oak Park. ‘Life was quite different for me then, I was an Aussie Wog – or Wozzie. At school there was only Australian (Anglo), Greek and Italian kids. We (Greek and Italian descent kids) really stood out, and had to assimilate’ to get by. ‘My parents were very strict and we were quite homebound, and quiet, rarely going to other kids’ places, and we never attended school camps. We didn’t go on holidays except once when we went to Phillip Island and stayed at a house with a number of other families. The women and us kids -my twin sister, a younger sister and brother – camped in the back yard while the men slept inside. I was quite shy then and our mother was like a little duck keeping us close. Our fun at weekends was visiting our relatives.’
Jo became a hairdresser after leaving school, doing her apprenticeship at Georges in Melbourne. She stayed on for four years, helping with runway fashion shows and doing hair for the models. Later she moved on to hairdressing and fashion show runways at the Jam Factory and David Jones. Jo continues to do a bit of hairdressing at home for friends – and local models (see the Lifestyle billboard with Salties Jan and Phil).
As a parent, of three children, Jo says she adopted a much more open approach than her own parents. However her first husband, and the father of her three children, though also very family oriented, was very controlling and abusive. Moving out of home to be married at twenty, by the age of thirty five, the marriage ended when Jo left with the children who were at the time five, seven and ten years old. Jo received help from a refuge organisation and while she saved up for a month’s rent, the refuge paid the bond and they were able to move out into a place of their own. When Jo and the kids later left the unit, they returned the bond to the refuge which was then used to pay someone else’s bond.
It turns out Jo was ‘a groundbreaker’ as she only knew of one other person who had left their marriage. While it was a bold move, when a family member died of cancer Jo said it was ‘a light bulb moment.’ This was not the life and the idea of how men and women behave she wanted for her children, or would accept for herself.
And then ‘I met ‘Saint Stephen’ – I was blessed. He allowed me to be me, without judging. He loves every bit of crazy and one thousand kilometers an hour me. And he introduced us to camping.’
Jo managed four or five jobs, but knew that even with ‘nothing’ it was a better life. They shopped at op-shops and made do. She said her kids were her number one priority and she had to do whatever she had to, to make sure they were okay. She says ‘I look at them now, three beautiful and successful adults and I know that it was the right thing to do.’ It was also a period in which Jo forged a ‘strong independence.’ She said it took six or seven years to adjust and trust.
Once living in St Leonards full time, Jo embraced, and helped create a strong sense of community. Using the skills learnt with the Education Department over seven years (a frozen shoulder had put an end to hairdressing) Jo has been working with a local lad through the NDIS. ‘He has come a long way in five years; he gained employment, volunteered, has made friends, went out to lunch and on holidays; he has become a part of the community’. None of which he had the confidence or skills to manage previously.
Jo loves being part of the St Leonards community and community people – working out at Pilates, yoga and being a part of the Women’s Circle with Be Puri, volunteering at an op-shop and swimming the Salties. ‘I love it; I found my place in a small town.’ Community means a lot to Jo. During the restrictions of COVID she made soup to share with her neighbours. When word was sent out neighbours would turn up at Jo’s front door with a saucepan for a serve of the days’ comfort soup offerings. The neighbours called it Jo’s Kitchen. She says ‘in many ways, COVID gave us a sense of community.’
Then three years ago she started what has now become an unmissable annual event the Biggest Morning Tea raising funds for the Cancer Council in the areas of research, education and nurses in schools. The whole idea began when a close friend was diagnosed with cancer; fortunately she is in remission, but her husband’s cancer has reappeared. The whole project has grown enormously in just three short years. The first year of the morning tea was held at the St Leonards Memorial Hall and not surprisingly it outgrew the space pretty much immediately. Since then the event has been held at the St Leonards Bowling Club. With an infectious optimism, a beautiful group of eight friends assisting, a spreadsheet in place of the old school exercise book and generous donors it has become hugely successful, and has continued to grow. ‘We now have close to one hundred local businesses that are kindly donating.’
Tickets have now sold out for the Biggest Morning Tea on Thursday May 28, but you can still go to Jo’s donations page on the Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea website Jo Jackson’s – Biggest Morning Tea St Leonards It could do with a top-up. The theme for this year’s event is ‘wear your most favourite outfit’, because as Jo say’s ‘you don’t want to die with your best outfit still in the wardrobe.’
And just in case there was any doubt about Jo’s indefatigable energy, the day after the morning tea, Jo and Steve head off to Bali to visit one daughter, her partner and gorgeous grandchild; and then on to Switzerland to catch up with her son. All this is even more extraordinary when you realise that Jo is living with an autoimmune disease, brought on by an initial infection, overwork and stress. ‘It took three painful years to diagnose’. Treatment began with ‘some pretty serious medications’ which she has gradually weaned herself off and replaced with an approach based on ‘trusting your body’ to be able to heal itself. This approach has led her to a lot of learning, a diet which is largely vegetarian and very Mediterranean – much of which comes from their garden – and a lot of fish, as well as daily fasting. She feels that her body is no longer ‘fighting itself.’ One of her favourite dishes is Cabonata which is a combination of onion, garlic, eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes cooked in olive oil, possibly with a dash of her famous hehehehe chilli olive oil.
Jo is loving where she is now. ‘Being a Nona is the most amazing part of my life, I was there when each of my grandchildren were born; a gift from my two girls who I adore. I love the age I am and being here; the community has blown me away.’
But we can’t finish this story without mentioning Pumpkin, the adorable toy poodle who thinks the house is hers – along with the entire neighbourhood, perhaps even the town (until she comes across lookalike Josie at Miras). Pumpkin’s public profile was greatly enhanced when she went missing briefly last year. Before long it seemed the whole town was out looking thanks to the good that social media can sometimes do. Pumpkin was quite pleased with herself and oblivious to the fuss she’d created as she walked herself back from IGA with a lady following to make sure she made it home safe. Seems it takes a village to keep an adventurous puppy safe – she’s grounded forever now.
Humans in St Leonards 