SWEETHEARTS: Nancye and Jack O’Gorman share a special moment at the reopening of the Point Perpendicular lighthouse.

GROWING up in a lighthouse would be a great adventure. It is something that 84-year-old Nancye O’Gorman now looks back on with fond memories. She was just 11 when she came to Point Perpendicular with her parents back in the 1940s. The family lived at the Jervis Bay station on two occasions coming back in the 1950s when her father Norman Uhr was again lighthouse keeper. Her last visit to the site was for the centenary celebrations in 1999 and the last time she had been up in the lantern of the local light was in the 1956 when the family was set to move away. But last month she made the journey back up the many stairs to the light to watch John Hampson flick the switch to put the light back into operation for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend activities.

“It’s been a long while since I have been up here,” said the spritely Berry resident.  “The first time we were here was during the war and as kids we had the run of the place, we went everywhere.

“Mum did fuss about us going to close to the edge as there were no fences. Dad would take us over to the edge and we would lie on our bellies and look down.”

Nancye actually attended school in Berry, staying with the nuns at the convent.

“I would get back here whenever I could on weekends or holidays,” she said. “I loved it here. We probably didn’t realise it at the time how special a time it was. People say it must have been romantic – we didn’t even think of it. It was just life, the way it was and we lived it every day. Looking back now it was pretty unique.”

Mrs O’Gorman was in her 20s and teaching at Albion Park during her father’s second stint at the station. It was there she met her now husband Jack.

“I used to bring him down here when we were courting to visit mum and dad,” she said.

“I used to drive down in an old International truck,” Mr O’Gorman laughed. “Gee it took some time back then and if you think the roads are bad now, you should have seen them then.”

“We didn’t really go that far, we only had a horse and sulky so it was rare to get into town, we mainly went to Currarong,” Mrs O’Gorman said. “The men were always busy they were also working on and maintaining the light. The structure was continually being painted. And you can see today it is still standing.”

Story and photo courtesy of South Coast Register newspaper, Nowra.