MY WORLD ~ 47 A DOUBLY SIGNIFICANT DAY

Sixty years ago today we sailed in through the Sydney
Heads and as we neared the harbour and the city I
stared in wonder at the hills.
Everywhere there were large patches of pink which
later I learned were Magnolia trees. In more than
half a century Sydney has changed and now is
crammed full of houses where before it boasted
beautiful gardens.

Although the spendour has left the cityscape, my

soul still remembers the exquisite beauty that greeted

my eyes on that auspicious day.

We embarked from Naples on the 25th Sept. 1949, my

13th birthday, little thinking that ten years to the day

later I would be leaving Europe yet again to cross the Atlantic.

My brother and sister had emigrated to Australia a year

earlier and sponsored mother and I to follow. Refugees

had little future in Germany at the time and neither the

USA, which only took young single people, nor Canada which

externded a helping hand to families as well, would take us

as we were encumbered with a person over the age of 45

and another still of mandatory school age.

My little brown cardboard sutcase held all my worldly

posessions, a spare set of underwear, a cardigan, a pair

of two piece bathers I had knitted from scratchy homespun

wool, a sunhat my mother had made for me for the voyage

and the few treasures I posessed, two books and a little

crystal vase and another very little one from Pompeii, my

birthday presents, as well as the little cellophane dolly my

papa had given me on the last Christmas before the Russians

hauled him off to Siberia.

All of which turned to ashes in the major bushfires in 1983.

Memories of the early days welled up of yet another language

to learn from scratch, the time spent in various camps, of people

on public transpost sidling away from one as though smitten

with the plague if one spoke in a foreign tongue on public transport...

When totally out of the blue Ces the wonderful Sunday painter

created this very special award for me.

As if by magic, I was lifted out of my introspective

thoughts and surrounded by the fellowship of the

oak nymphs she has created and made to feel special

for the old and weatherd oak that I am.

Ces, I thank you from my heartwood and will compile a list

of further recpients as soon as I can. Thank you dear

sisterfriend.

Thanks to the My World team we can all wonder the world at will.