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.
