GOD HAS BEEN GOOD

Most Australians know the great athlete Robert de Castella, but very few would be acquainted with his mother, Ann, or the project she is involved with, or make to connection between her and one of Australia’s pioneering wine families. Rosie Hoban went to speak with her.

Anastasia de Castella is comfortable with the many tags she has earned over the years. For most of her early life she was known as the daughter of Sir William Hall, the man renowned in Australia for his dedication to and advocacy on behalf of returned service men and women. As a young woman she trained as a nurse at Melbourne’s Mercy Hospital and then married Rolet de Castella and became associated with the family that established some of the great vineyards in the Yarra Valley, outside of Melbourne.

In her son Robert de Castella’s heyday as one of Australia’s greatest marathon runners, she was knows as Deek’s Mum. Now she’s the Hawthorn shopkeeper who sells holy things. Perhaps it is this most recent vocation as one of the largest suppliers of religious goods in Australia that has made her such a familiar face and name to people from all religions and walks of life.

In 1988, Ann (as she is known) and her husband, Rolet, took over a business owned by their friend Otto Nechwatal and re-established it as Southern Cross Church Supplies. The de Castellas decided to move the stock of statues, religious garments, candles and altar wine to a small store in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn. Thankfully, a larger store across the road became vacant six years later and the de Castellas moved their busines, determined to grow into a one-stop shop for priests, ministers, other religious and the general public. Ann now sells Church supplies throughout Australia and to many other countries including Samoa and New Zealand.
The de Castellas worked side by side in the store until Rolet’s death in 1997. His sudden death, during a regular run, sent Ann reeling into shock. It was the shop that saved her.

‘I had to come back to work and take over what Rolet had been doing. He had been in charge of all the administration and I realised very quickly that I would have to take up that side of the business. Understanding superannuation and company tax was a very steep learning curve’, Ann says. While running a religious supplies business might have been unfamiliar territory to her, the religious culture was not. She has been part of the Sacred Heart Parish in Kew for 42 years. Her ‘Catholic history’ reveals a woman of great faith and steely determination.

Ann smiles without regret or anger when she tells of her childhood and teenage years as a devout ‘closet’ Catholic, unable to practise her faith in view of her father until she was 18 years old. He was she says, a fine man, but of a Scottish Presbyterian background, who did not want his children to be Catholic. Sir William remained true to his agreement for the children to attend Catholic schools. In later years, after he had returned from the Second World War, his vision had broadened and he was happy for them to be Catholic.
‘I think he realised after the War that some of the stories about Catholics, that he had believed for so long, were simply not true. He was a very good man’, Ann says. After Ann’s mother died she helped care for her father and spent two nights each week with him and welcomed the opportunity to know him better in his last years.

It was then that she discovered the depth of his spirituality.

The relationship Ann developed with God as a child grew stronger as she matured. Ann says her beloved mother nurtured her faith and comforted her when concealment of her Catholicism weighed too heavy. It may well have been a leap of faith fifteen years ago that landed the one-time director of nursing, mother of seven and grandmother of twelve, in the retail business.

‘As a nurse, I was used to dealing with people and I enjoy the relationships that I have built up with customers over the years. So many come here regularly for gifts for baptisms, reconciliation, communion and confirmation and the local church people are also frequent customers’, she says.

Ironically, Ann’s business is growing, despite declining numbers at most Protestant and Catholic Churches. She has watched the trends in religious goods change, and has learned to gear up for a sales boost during times of trouble. Most recently, the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and the Bali bombings last year sent people searching for the religious rituals many had grown up with but later abandoned. Sales of rosary beads and prayer books increased during these times. Interestingly, St Christopher medals remain one of Ann’s best sellers and are still bought as gifts for young travellers, by people of all ages and all denominations.
The shop, while supplying churches everywhere, has also become the place where people come looking for something that is ‘not too religious’. Ann knows to direct these clients to the stunning range of crosses made by communities in El Salvador. ‘Parents and grandparents who want to give their children a religious icon, are looking for something that will not be stored in a cupboard’, she says.

The El Salvadorian crosses are just some of the stock that Ann carries from a range of overseas artists. She also uses many local artists to produce high quality garments and personalised products such as decorated candles and elaborately embroidered liturgical garments. Her daughter-in-law Isabella helps her in the shop and her daughter Elizabeth, an artist, also works with her, helping to restore damaged statues.

Ann, 71, works at the shop most days and fits in three gym workouts each week. She is resisting the pressure from her seven children to retire, although she looks forward to spending more time with them and her grandchildren when that time arrives. Ann’s children are scattered around the country. Two of them, Willie and Louis, are involved in the business that helped the De Castella’s make their mark in Victoria in the mid 1800s. Willie owns John Paul’s Vineyard in Yea and Louis is studying viticulture and working at a winery on the Mornington Peninsula. Robert hit the headlines again earlier this year when his Canberra property was burnt to the ground during the summer bushfires.

‘God has been good’, says Ann. God has guided her on a journey that has brought her great joy and sorrow and some remarkable people along the way. And, she hopes, the journey is far from over.