Flashback Friday (on a Sunday): My Crafty Nanna

I don't know if my nannas were crafty. I know my great-grandma was crafty (see this post), I know my mum is crafty, and I know my dad's mum baked a mean meringue, and my mum's mum was state Bridge champion, but I can't really post about a crafty nanna.

So, instead I will dedicate this post to my dad's gorgeous mum, and another post this week to my mum's gorgeous mum.

My beautiful grandmother Irena.

My grandma's name was Irena. She birthed and raised four boys, and was a fantastic cook. She loved animals, and adopted any injured wild animals which came her way. In the pic below she is chatting to an adopted bird. Dad tells me this bird came to visit regularly long after it had healed and gone "home".


She was a great drawer, and had planned on studying fine arts, but then she met my grandfather, got married, and had her four boys, so that was the end of that!

Proudly holding her first son, my dad, sometime in 1947.

She met my grandfather in 1943 in German-occupied Poland, when they were both working for the German Weigel Institute, feeding lice. Mmmm-hmmm, yep. The lice would be placed in a little cage, which would be applied to your leg, and the lice sucked your blood, after which some kind of crazy processes were carried out to obtain typhoid antibodies from the lice. This was one way of avoiding being rounded up and sent to labour or concentration camps.

Walking with a friend, 1941.

My grandma died in 1991, aged 71, from Parkinson's disease. We had been in Australia since 1982, so I hadn't really known her, but I know of her lovely character, and I remember those meringues!

On the left, with her mother and sister.