Amelia Fielden
The Elephant in the Room
every Wednesday
dinner at Kensington
with roast beef
rice pudding, Tiny the dog
and very best manners
When finally allowed to leave the table, accompanied by her pet Pomeranian Tiny, I would explore great-aunt Sophia’s seldom used Edwardian drawing room.
A treasure cave : paintings with gilt frames, china figurines in glass-fronted cabinets, a piano draped with gold and silver fringed shawls, a jardiniere of peacock feathers … Below a cupid-clasped mirror, the ormolu mantle-piece. There, amid a clutter of crystal vases and enamel boxes, knelt an elephant. An ornate porcelain elephant wearing a headdress studded in gems, and on its back a howdah ready to transport a rajah and his entourage. Standing on an embroidered footstool, I would reach up to touch it. Aware of my fascination, the lady of the house promised this elephant would be mine when I was grown up.
Sophia, our wealthy relative without direct descendants, was in the habit of making and remaking her will, with detailed directives for the distribution of her many possessions. Which is why my family did not believe Alec, her much younger second husband when, after Sophia’s death, he swore there was no will to be found. In the absence of a will, her entire estate, including diamond jewellery earlier allocated to my grandmother, an annuity for my grandfather Edward, and my precious elephant, automatically became Alec’s property. Almost immediately he sold the house and disappeared.Never to be seen again in Sydney.
no forty thieves
just an evil Ali Baba
acting alone
ransacked a treasure trove
and broke the family bonds
Until I was fifty, I believed what I had always been told: Sophia was my great-aunt, my maternal grandfather’s much older sister. Then a researching cousin discovered that she was in fact our great-grandmother, who at sixteen had borne a boy, Edward, out of wedlock ; “father unknown,” on his birth certificate.
family stories
genteel lady living
a family lie
my beloved elephant too …
how few survive
About the Author
Amelia Fielden is Australian. She is a professional Japanese translator and a keen writer of traditional Japanese forms of poetry in English. Her most recent collection is These Purple Years (Ginninderra Press, 2018).