Month: May 2017

How my story begins

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“In 1919 when my mother Selma Kater as born in Amsterdam, it was common to have professional horoscopes done for newborn boys, but Selma was a girl. Regardless, I do not believe the stars could have predicted what lay ahead.”

In Europe there was a movement toward spiritualism after WWI, but it was not evident in the Kater household. However, there did come a time when Selma consulted a fortune teller.  In a later post, I will elaborate on the family dynamics.  For now it is suffice to mention that Selma was the middle child.  Her brother Albert had been born the previous year, and two years later her sister Hetty.

Victoria Day Weekend

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On the Victoria Day weekend of 1946 my mother, Selma (Kater) Smith arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax, a Dutch war bride ready to embrace a new life in a new land. She travelled by train to Saint John, NB and  by bus to St. Stephen to join my father, Sidney Smith.

They had married at the Doorn courthouse, in Holland, on December 13, 1945 – five days before my father’s regiment was disbanded and he left for the UK on his way back to Canada.

On the Victoria Day weekend, seventy-one years ago, they began their married life together in Upper Mills, near St. Stephen, NB.

They never talked about the war years and they never talked about their lives before the war.  Several paths to information are now making it possible for me to see Mom as Selma, a unique woman with a fascinating story.