Maureen marks 63 years of motherhood

Brookland resident Maureen Samios will celebrate 63 years of motherhood this Mother’s Day, alongside her 10 children.

With a large family spanning multiple generations, Maureen has 22 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two of her sons also live in the Brookland village.

“My eldest, Dominic, he lives here at Brookland. My other son Luke, is a FIFO worker so he stays here a couple of weeks too,” Maureen said.

“I have seven sons and three daughters. The eldest will be 63 in June and the youngest, Julian, he’s 42. There’s quite an age gap – Julian was just 8 weeks old on Dominic’s 21^st birthday.”

Reflecting on motherhood, Maureen is proud of her children and their families.

“The boys all played footy on the weekends, so my husband and I would be busy driving around, dropping them off at different fields, sometimes we only met at the doorway on a Saturday,” she said.

“They’re not as rowdy as they used to be, they all have their own families now, but they pop in to see me as much as they can. They all live around Brisbane and it’s lovely to have them close.”

Originally from Grantham in the Lockyer Valley, Maureen worked at the local bank and met her husband there before relocating to Brisbane to be married.

“My first three children were born in Grantham, below Toowoomba, because that’s where we were from, but the others are Brisbane born and bred,” she said.

Now a flood town, Grantham was severely damaged in the 2011 Queensland floods.

Looking to downsize from her larger home, Maureen moved to Brookland 13 years ago and loves the community.

“My husband and I found Brookland in November 2009. We had our property on the market, but he passed away before we moved so sadly, he didn’t get to see Brookland, and I moved in March 2010 so I’ve been here for 13 years.”

“Everyone gets along. There’s plenty of things to go to. There are always events on, every week there’s something on, you couldn’t go to them all! Every couple of months there’s day trips,” she said.

To mark what will be 63 years of motherhood this year, Maureen’s happy to keep it low-key.

“The family will probably be popping in, but I don’t need anything, I just want them to pop in and say hello. Of course, they all have families of their own and my daughters all have Mother’s Day too, so just to say hello is all I could ask for.”

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