A year later we were all set to join my father when they examined us and as we were going through the required medical examination to enter Canada the doctor discovered what he thought was a heart murmur (wrong diagnosis) in Susan who was 5 years old at the time and wouldn't allow us to enter Canada. So, my mother decided I was the elder and could look after her better than my brother.  The two of us had to stay behind with the neighbor.

How was our stay with the neighbor? Years later my mother asked about our stay with the neighbor, and I said she was a horrible person. Her children came first in everything, there was no sharing.

In England, during World War II, my mother went into labor, expecting a terrible time-her previous birth. a son refused to leave the womb, she was in labor for 48 hours with a midwife, who didn't know what to do.

The midwife finally called the doctor, who arrived to find that the cord was wrapped around his neck, and my mother was nearly dead along with her newborn son, Michael, fortunately, both survived.

Bombs were dropping all over and shattering the once peaceful evening, sending residents scrambling for cover. The ear-piercing wail of sirens filled the air as families huddled together in bomb shelters, praying for safety. Streets that were usually bustling with life now lay deserted, debris littering the ground. The relentless bombing seemed unending, each explosion shaking the foundations of buildings. Amid the chaos, brave first responders rushed to aid the injure , risking their lives to save others. The city, under siege, clung desperately to hope, resilience echoing through the fearful night.

So this time my Mother was expecting the worst, all the lights went out because there was an air raid and bombs were dropping all around. She expected terrible things to happen, however, while she lay on the bed waiting for somebody to bring a lamp, she could feel me kicking her I had already been born and she didn't feel a thing. Finally, a nurse brought a lantern, and they finished cleaning me and my mother up, and that is my birth story. Diane was born in 1943 during the war and lived through most of World War 2 in England. (Susan my sister was born in 1945)

We were sitting at the dining room table, a buzz bomb went over, and the noise stopped.

My father yelled at everybody under the table. My aunt had a great big old Victorian dining room set and all of us, including the babies, jumped under the table. We looked like a minstrel show, all black The bomb exploded directly over the house, and when we all crawled out from under the table, we were all covered with black soot on our faces. We looked like a minstrel show. The explosion resulted in throwing all the soot down the chimney, all over us and the house.

We used to love to play hide and seek and pretend that we had been bombed in the ruins. (the imagination of young children)

On another occasion, my grandmother lived in Royal housing in Hull England, and because she knew everybody, she was chosen to be an air raid warden. Her job was to make sure that everybody on the street got into an air raid shelter before they closed the doors. On one occasion she was busy doing her job running up and down the street (all 4 foot eight of her), making sure that everybody was awakened and heading for the air raid shelter when a bomb dropped directly on the air raid shelter which was at the end of the street she was patrolling.

My grandmother was spared because she was doing her job.

On another occasion, a bomb landed in my grandmother's backyard but did not explode. Back then they had men who would go out and defuse the bombs. A lot of them blew up, but a lot of people were saved because of their heroics.

Immigration decision to be made. Moving forward a few years, the war is over and my mother who I'm sure was part gypsy decided they were going to move to New Zealand. This included my mother, my father, my older, brother and by then I had a younger sister.

When we applied to New Zealand, the quota was full. Fortuitously a plumber had to come into
my mother's home to fix the plumbing. He had on a tie that lit up with a nude lady. Even though my mother was very shy, she couldn't
resist and asked him where he got the tie. He replied that he had just come back from Canada,
and he was packing up his home here and moving there.

(After their mother and brother sailed off it was discovered that Susan's diagnosis was a medical error.)

Before mother and brother left, it was decided that the two girls would have to come later on another Ocean Liner.

Chaperones (two retired School Teachers) were hired to care for the two girls on the trip to Canada. Diane the older sister would help to take care of her sister wile traveling on the ocean liner..

Kathleen, their mother had left for Canada with their son Michael after selling all the possessions in 1949, (These were desperate times after World War 2)

Diane and Susan had to be left in the care of their next-door neighbor to travel later with the hired Chaperones in the winter of 1950 to Canada to reunite with their parents.

Buzz Bomb:  A Nazi terror weapon
The V1 Flying Bomb, also known as a 'buzz bomb' or 'doodlebug', was one of the most fear-inducing terror weapons of the Second World War. In the face of relentless Allied bombing of German cities, Hitler created its 'revenge weapons' (Vergeltungswaffen) in an attempt to terrorise British civilians and undermine morale. But alongside the civilians killed and wounded by the V-1 are the forgotten victims of the vengeance weapons, the people who made them. Tens of thousands of slave labourers from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp lost their lives building the tunnels where the weapons were made.

I believe they must've discussed a few things,
because by the time my father got home from
work, my mother turned to him and said we're moving to Canada,

So, in 1948 my father moved to Canada leaving my mother at home to sell the household things, my mother always said she got so much money, because after the war, there was nothing available, she had baby carriages and prams and all kinds of household goods that nobody could find then.