Born in June and named June

The Frame sisters:
Myrtle, Janet, Isabel

(June in front)

My mother June was Janet Frame's little sister, sometimes referred to in the family as "the runt of the litter" because she was so petite.

In the short story "The Plum Tree and the Hammock" published for the first time ever this month in the Summer 2012 issue of the US journal Zoetrope: All-Story and soon to be collected for the first time in GORSE IS NOT PEOPLE: NEW & UNCOLLECTED STORIES by JANET FRAME (Penguin NZ 2012) Janet Frame makes an interesting observation about the dynamics of large families:

 

"In families, you see, there is a kind of animal construction that makes the eldest turn, like a creature to its tail, to bite or lick the youngest."

Today - the 30th of June - would have been my mother's birthday, and in her memory I have gathered together some links to the various posts where I have written about Mum and her sister and lifelong close friend Janet:

In the Frame

Frame by Frame

What part of “The work is fiction” do you not understand?

Out of the Frame

Frame Family Graves

June & Wilson Gordon with Janet Frame