Daughter of James Hall, Rose Hall grew up in Auburn. She married Joseph William Chomel in 1914, at the Salvation Army Hall in Pirie St, Adelaide, and they had three children, Gordon, Helen and Betty. They lived at Orroroo most of the time, but her husband, a drover, was often away from home. He died of pneumonia in 1924 when their youngest child was 18 months old, and Chomel moved to Adelaide in about 1927, living in the centre of Adelaide.
It was the time of the Depression, and Chomel took whatever work she could get to support her young family. In spite of these difficulties, she is remembered by her daughter as having a delightful if quirky sense of humour. 'If there was something to be happy about,' Bett Percy (q.v.), writes, 'Mum sure was happy. One of her oft-repeated remarks was "What's the use of being in Heaven, if you don't know you're there!"'
Chomel was an artistic woman, playing the piano and the accordion, writing stories, poems and songs. Before she was married she would play the accordion for the local dances in the mid-north, and when her church gave her an ultimatum - church, or dancing and music - she didn't hesitate, her daughter said, to give up the church.
None of accordian's work was published in her lifetime, but after she died at the age of 84 her daughter Bett, as Maggie Chomel, edited and published a collection of Chomel's fairy stories. Bett has reproduced most of her mother's work in book form in order to preserve it for the family, and as well as the work listed in AustLit Maggie Chomel has an unpublished book of Chomel's poems and a book of her songs (words and music).
