Guided by the hand of God
People
An orphan for the first four years of his life and raised as an only child, Brother Greg McCrystal was overjoyed to be joined by members of his three families when he celebrated his 70th anniversary as a Marist in Melbourne last month.
As principal of five schools for 26 years and a teacher for much longer, Br Greg McCrystal has had an impact on the lives of thousands of students and their families.
A stickler for detail, he reckons he has been responsible in “one way or another” for nearly 7000 students. Br Greg has also had considerable influence on the Marist communities of southern Australia, serving as a community leader for 30 years and Province and Provincial secretary for eight years.
After four years battling stomach cancer, he is back in action at the Brothers’ Somerton Park residence where he is responsible for the House annals and finances.
Resilience is intrinsic to Br Greg’s make-up. Asked from where he hails, his reply is “the streets of Brunswick” in Melbourne.
It’s all too close to the truth.
“When I was born, I had to be given up,” he said when asked why he had “three families”.
“I was born in 1936 in the Carlton Women’s Hospital, and in those days you were then moved to an orphanage which was in Broadmeadows, a foundling home they called it, and I stayed there for four years.
“The birth mother was wanting, when she got married, to take me on but the husband-to-be wasn’t in on that and that’s when she had to give me up.”
Edith and Hugh McCrystal, a couple in their 40s, would take children home for the Christmas holidays and they “took a fancy” to young Brian (as he was named at birth).
Br Greg with his adoptive mum Edith.
It was their second marriage and their children from Edith’s first marriage had grown up so they decided to adopt Brian.
His first experience in the education system – at St Margaret Mary’s Catholic School in West Brunswick – wasn’t promising.
“I know I was the bane of my teacher’s life, both in prep and in grade one, because I used to spend most of the time up the front of the class keeping the nun company,”
he said in his typically humorous way.
In 1943, Edith’s eldest son was killed in action in New Guinea and around that time her husband started having serious kidney trouble.
“Mum was finding it difficult to look after me. I was sent off to boarding school run by the Mercy Sisters in Mornington,” Br Greg said, adding such schools were a product of the war.
“Then Dad died and suddenly she had to be the bread winner, finding work as a seamstress.”
Having started life in an orphanage, young Brian was happy at boarding school.
“I loved it, I had no traumas there, I never experienced any cruelty and I’ve got no emotional scars,” he said.
After two years he returned home and his mum enrolled him at St Ambrose’s Primary School in Brunswick. But it was short-lived as in the first week he was wrongly accused of stealing money and Edith was so upset she enrolled him in the state primary school on Albert Street.
But there his teacher refused to take him to the school dental clinic, telling his mother he was “one of the most difficult students she had ever come across”.
At the end of the year, he transferred to Stewart Street State School where he spent the rest of his primary school years. Here he finally found a teacher, Miss Dorothy Brennan, who liked him and by Grade 6 he had made such progress that he was made a class monitor. The plan was for Brian to attend Christian Brothers Technical School but it only started at Year 8 and in a pivotal moment Miss Brennan suggested he go to the Marist Brothers in North Fitzroy for two years.
Br Greg said he often wondered how his life would have turned out if different decisions had been made on his behalf.
In retrospect, he said he can “see the hand of God or providence” so many times in his life.
The decision to attend the North Fitzroy school was life changing.
Not only did his studies improve, he met “these chaps in black clothes”.
“Here’s another thing, all in hindsight now, one of the great needs I had was a male presence, there were no males in the family once dad died when I was nine, just my (step) sisters, Mum, women teachers,” Br Greg said.
“These chaps, the Marist Brothers, were good teachers. I got on well with them, they were kind.
“Maybe deep down what was coming out was the need for a male influence in my life.”
When the provincial, Br Placidus Redden (great uncle of Br Jordan Redden), came around to the Grade 7 classes, he handed out pieces of paper on which students had to mark whether they were interested in joining the Brothers – the options were yes, possibly, and no. In Grade 7 Br Greg put down ‘no,’ but when Br Placidus repeated the exercise the following year, for some unknown reason, Br Greg put down ‘possibly’.
He had an interview with Br Placidus and “must have expressed some interest” because he told him he could enter in September rather than wait until the start of the next year. But first he had to ask his mother.
“I thought she’d say ‘don’t be so stupid’,” Br Greg said.
“I was extremely surprised when she said ‘oh, that would be okay’.
“I’m thinking ‘what’! Just the way she said it in a quiet voice, it was one of the special moments in my life when I had to pluck up courage to ask her, and then her almost tender answer.”
His mum went to a meeting with the provincial at Camberwell and on September 10 1950, he left for the juniorate at Mount Macedon at the age of 13.
Br Greg remembers his first day when he and his mum met “the boss” of the juniorate.
“He had just come from playing football with the juniors and introduced himself as Br Canice O’Donnell. He was a lovely man, If I was looking for a father figure, he was the one – he was easy to get on with, everyone loved him.
“So that’s how I became a Brother, not for any religious reasons, but because I saw these men, I liked the way they taught, I liked them, I wanted to be one of them.”
His postulancy and novitiate were both at Mount Macedon where the Melbourne province had established its own program formation program. It was on 35 acres and there was plenty of work to be done by the 12 postulants.
“The master of novices had us working most of the time, just like Marcellin Champagnat with the early Brothers; we almost had a dislike of work,” he laughed.
“We did our own laundry, and our own cleaning but we did have a cook.”
His first profession on July 16 1956 was a “wonderful experience” with the group’s parents and close relatives attending,
After a period away from the Church, Br Greg’s mum had by then returned to practising the faith.
“I like to think that my decision to become a Brother might have influenced my mum’s rediscovery of her faith and strong commitment to Catholicism…regardless I always considered her to be a good person.”
Edith ended up working as a housekeeper at the local presbytery and later became involved in ‘Home Help’ with the local council.
After a “crash course” on teaching, 19-year-old Br Greg began his first appointment at Northam, about 90km from Perth on the Kalgoorlie line. In his second year he was selected for a six-month ‘scholasticate’ at Drummoyne in Sydney under the guidance of the famous Br Ronald Fogarty, where he gained valuable experience in the theory and practice of teaching.
Appointments at Marist schools at Griffith, Warragul and Camberwell followed and in 1967 he assumed the role of deputy principal at Traralgon and then returned to Northam as principal. He was still only 33 and was “honoured” to take on the role at the school where he had begun his teaching career.
At Northam, Br Greg oversaw the amalgamation of the girls’ and boys’ schools (St Joseph’s Northam) in 1971, the first co-ed Catholic school in WA.
After leadership positions in Victorian colleges, in 1984 Br Greg commenced a Bachelor of Education at the Australian Catholic University while living in the Paramatta Westmead (NSW) community. He did extremely well with his studies and was awarded the University Medal for his efforts.
It was at Paramatta Westmead that he received a letter from a distant family member who had been doing research for a family tree. The letter informed him that he was adopted.
While he had “suspicions” growing up, he didn’t think there was any point in asking back then. “They would have said don’t be so ridiculous,” he said.
His adoptive mother had died by now and when he contacted his step sisters, they were devastated that he had found out this way and said they had been “sworn to secrecy”. But at the age of 50 he was finally able to pursue his suspicions.
“I felt a huge sense of relief,” he said.
At the conclusion of his studies in 1987, he was appointed principal of Redden College at Preston and once he had settled in there, he began the process of trying to find his birth mother.
He contacted the Sisters who ran the foundling hospital and they told him there was a big waiting list. After two years he finally got a reply but there were no guarantees.
Working out that his birth mother would be at least 71, he asked for the process to be fast-tracked and soon after contact was made.
A message was delivered to his birth mother on his behalf saying “I am a Marist Brother, I teach in Catholic schools and I would love to meet you.” A few days later they called him back with her phone number.
Br Greg said when he made the call his mother, Elizabeth Beale, she was very “matter-of-fact and hardly got excited.” But she agreed to be picked up by him outside the church next to his school and go to the Northland shopping centre for coffee.
Before the meeting Br Greg was in the school office and one of the secretaries, noticing his anxiousness, asked if he was alright.
“I wasn’t prepared to tell her but I said: ‘one of the most important events in my life is going to take place today’,” he recalled.
“She (his birth mum) was a bit nervous, she had a few photos, I had a few photos and we had a bit of a natter.
“That began a 15-year relationship. Elizabeth died when she was 89. I would go and visit her pretty much every week, then I discovered I had three other brothers, an older one she had before me who I got on very well with, we had a great relationship until he died.”
The older brother was raised by his grandmother.
“If I had been the only one perhaps my mother’s mother would have raised me,” he said. “That’s just the luck of the draw.”
The only information he had about his father was that his last name was Egan, but one of his nieces from his adopted family suggested doing a DNA search.
He sent a sample and discovered his father was Frank Egan, a well-known figure in Brunswick due to his work as an SP bookmaker and his champion status at billiards. A Catholic, he had married a few years after Br Greg was born and had seven more sons.
“So, I have three families and 15 siblings,” Br Greg proudly declared.
He gets on very well with his two surviving half-brothers on his birth father’s side, Martin and Paul, who are 61 and 72. A great niece is the mother of AFL footballers Harry McKay (Carlton) and Ben McKay (Essendon) which Br Greg is quite chuffed about, despite being an avid Geelong supporter.
He is also very close to his stepsister’s daughter, Margaret, who he spent a lot of time with over the years.
Early in 2021, Br Greg was diagnosed with a malignant tumour and stage three lymphoma, which had spread. For the past five years he has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and countless hospital visits. This year, however, Br Greg said he feels the best he has been since his diagnosis, with the cancer being effectively managed.
Once asked by a fellow Marist what quote he would choose to end his story, Br Greg decided on one of his own: “Life is what you make it. It can be miserable, or it can be happy and productive. It’s up to you, and how it turns out will be determined by the choices you make.”
