France

The Woman Carrying Two Giant Easter Eggs

Among the many postcards my mother and grandparents collected over the years is one which definitely speaks of Easter (pictured above). It is of a lady dressed colourfully, with a small red hat on her dark brown hair, an upturned collar and what looks like a green scarf tied around

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What She Did Not Say – An Unfinished Memoir Part 2

For the most part it has been easy for me to find family documents. I am lucky to have inherited birth certificates, school reports, identification documents and death certificates, amongst others, for both sides of my family. Documents I haven’t inherited, I have found online. The difficult part is trying

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My Grandparents in France – celebrating Christmas in exile

I am slowly transcribing notes my grandmother, Olga Woronoff, née Countess Kleinmichel, wrote over the years. The other day I came across this story which must have taken place on Christmas Eve 1921, somewhere in the South of France. I have narrowed it down to 1921 as there is no

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What She Did Not Say – An Unfinished Memoir Part I

I have decided to write my memories of my youth, my life and now my “senior” years so that you will know your mother better. So begins the memoir my mother started but never finished. It is handwritten on just three pages of a notebook which was once thick. I

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