My Mother

 Lucretia Matilda Smith, my mother, was born in Cowbridge, In the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales (United Kingdom), in about 1891. I know little of my mothers past.  

As far as I know, my mother married a British airman, Robert Marshall,  during WWI. She gave birth to a daughter, Molly Ena, in 1915. For reasons unknown to me, she left Britain for South Africa and joined a married sister living in Durban. 

She was always a loyal British national; she referred to Britain as 'home' until she died in 1962. I am not sure of when she left Britain. It must have taken some courage at the time. The sea was bristling with German submarines. The British luxury steamship Lusitania had just been torpedoed without warning off the south coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, with many lives lost.

A dressmaker and milliner by trade, she met my father, Pieter, in Durban, and they were married in 1927. Molly (Ena) was 12 years old at the time of their marriage. Having very different backgrounds, they did well remaining together for 35 years of marriage.

Glyn was born in 1935 when Molly was 20 years old. Glyn's arrival was very late in a woman's life. His mother must have been about 44 years of age; older women face a higher risk of giving birth to babies with defects. A study suggests that fertility rates drop close to zero at age 44.

We lived peacefully in Durban, South Africa, until WWII in 1940, and that changed everything. Molly's husband joined the allied forces and departed for North Africa and Italy. He served on the hospital ship 'Amra' for a period, and he returned unscathed at the end of the war.

Pieter applied to join the forces simultaneously, but his application was refused because he was a detective and sent to Port Shepstone for the duration of the war.