Elizabeth married Charles Molineaux Parkes, a master mariner foreign going sea captain who when he left sea took up a partnership in the company Hicks and Parkes, marine surveyors and architects. Their son, Stanley, was born prematurely and at birth weighed only 1 ½ pounds. He was baptised immediately and his mother and grandmother were told he would not survive the night. But he did survive. Elizabeth and her mother looked after him together - his grandmother feeding him with an ink dropper!

After Charles died Elizabeth, through friends of her husband, met Robert Hugh Sutherland, nicknamed Bertie. Bertie was a dental surgeon in the army during the War, and when he returned he got in touch with Elizabeth and little Stanley who were living in Fleetwood in Lancashire. Eventually Bertie and Elizabeth married in 1949 when Stanley was 16 and the whole family moved to Edinburgh where Bertie had his own dental practice.

Bertie's family had a croft in Durness in the far north of Scotland where they would spend the summer. From the age of 9 until he was 16 John would spend each summer holiday at the remote croft. Later John Lennon would say that he had more fond memories of Scotland than he did of England.

When the Sutherland estate came up for sale in the 1970s John's cousin David told John about the advertisement he had seen in the Times. John wanted to buy it because of his love of the Highlands, but he was too late.

Aunt Mater died of cancer in 1976.