the M.A.D. pages
OMA REMEMBERS . . . |
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On one letter - to the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service - we received an answer, offering a position as lighthouse keeper in Tasmania, if we could arrive within the next 12 months. Tante Rietje and Oom Theo decided that they would go as well and we hoped that it would be possible to go together and offer each other support.  |
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It was on one day in July 1952, I think it was a Friday, that we received notice that a berth would be available for the next Tuesday (!) on the ss "Nelly". That threw us into a panic. Since we had started to think about emigration which was several months ago, I had become pregnant again. So my first reaction was to wait till the baby was born. I was a bit worried about having a baby in a strange country, although later I thought that babies would be born every day in Australia as well and that I would be all right. But I rang the steamship company, just in case there was a way out, but I was told that if we did not take this opportunity, we would go to the bottom of the list. The man on the phone said, "Anyway it is much easier to travel now than with a newborn baby". This seemed reasonable enough although I later had second thoughts about the "easy travelling" because I was seasick most of the time we spent at sea. The "Nelly" was a troopship which had been converted (not much) to take migrants to Australia. It was an awful ship. Life on board was like living in a refugee camp. |
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