The mama letters

In 1954 my parents emigrated to Australia from Holland. He was twenty-seven years old and she was thirty-one.

They had married in 1951 after a friendship that began 19 years earlier in the small village of Nuenen near Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Dad had loved my mother since he was eight years old and finally she accepted that he was the man she would marry. Their families had been close but after WWII things changed. Dad’s parents moved away and it was Mama’s parents who mentored the young couple.

Their decision to emigrate was based on my Dad’s needs for a fresh start.  His education had been disrupted by the war beginning when he was 12 years old; and his service in the Dutch army in Indonesia had left him with a longing for warmer climates. My parents accepted an offer of assisted passage to Australia and in 1954 their new life began. I had just turned two and this story includes me – Lydia – or as I was known to them as Lai or Laitje

Mama had been very close with her parents Anna Cornelia (‘Kenelus’ as she is called in the letters), ‘Pippa’ (her father Rudolf) and her older sister Rudi (also known as ‘Hylarius’ so -named after a radio character, and as ‘Kuuk’ by her infant niece). Dad too was very fond of them all too as they had looked after him after his parents’ divorce.

As she was a keen journaller Mama promised that she would write back home regularly. And every week or two she would pen a long letter to the family and this began as soon as they boarded the migrant ship.

The Mama Letters chronicle the life of a young family in Australia.  They are a formidable stack of lightweight aerogram sheets that we found in my Aunty Rudi’s house when she passed away. By an incredible stroke of good fortune my friend’s Aunty Peta offered to translate them into English. She has done a magnificent job and we owe this work to the writer Mama and her translator Peta. Without them – the Mama Letters could not exist.

Dad also loved photography and so we have pictures to accompany the story. He was given what they called the backdoor on the aerogram sheets that her letters were started on.  It was the back flap – about one third the space on the front. His musings are included.