90 years’ devotion to family
Born two months premature, doctors warned Mary Grossetti’s parents that she wouldn’t live. Ninety years later she celebrated her birthday.
BORN two months premature in Babinda on January 7, 1928, doctors warned Mary Grossetti’s parents that their baby daughter would not survive.
But on January 6 in Cairns, Mary celebrated her 90th birthday surrounded by almost 100 loved ones.
Few people could say they had so many guests attend their birthday party and even fewer could say every one of them was family.
Mary knew from a young age she wanted a big family. She says other women never took her seriously when she said she wanted 12 children.
“They thought I was joking and that I’d forget about it,” she says.
But her determination was not to be tested.
Mary Grossetti met Frank Dall’Alba in Babinda in 1946.
Three years later the pair married and moved into the same street in Gordonvale that Mary still lives on today.
On their wedding night, Frank announced in his speech that they would have 12 children – six boys and six girls.
Sure enough, the couple gave birth to 12 children over a period of 19 years with just one set of twins along the way.
“A lady at the hospital asked me if Fran was my first baby and I said ‘No, she’s my 12th’,” laughs Mary.
“She was so shocked. She said to me ‘but you look so young and happy’”
For most people, 12 children would be more than enough to take care of. But, Mary Dall’Alba is not “most people” and was not to be deterred from cooking for countless extras each night.
“One time a family was driving down the range and they ran out of fuel,” she recalls. “Frank went up and took them some fuel and then they all stayed for dinner.
“Sometimes people would arrive unexpectedly, but there was always enough.”
Now 90, Mary is also the loving grandmother of 34 grandchildren and greatgrandmother of more than 20.
She says they are a great consolation to her.
“Seeing all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I think that gives me a new lease on life,” she says.