She was born in Antwerp, Belgium to Louis and Maria Helena Doossche, they were first cousins. She had an older brother Peter and a younger sister Helene.
Mam never talked much about the war, just odd bits and pieces then she would clam up and change the subject. Living in an occupied country couldn't have been easy, the shortage of food was the thing Mam mentioned most often.Sometime during the occupation Mam trained as a Nursing Aide and was sent to work in a German Hospital, it wasn't voluntary, she said she wasn't very good at it (deliberately did more harm than good?), then went to Brussels to work for the German's as a typist, about that time she also joined the resistance movement. All we know of that period is that she carried maps for the resistance, if caught she would have been shot. She saw several friends killed during air-raids and her fiance was also killed.
She met my father Thomas Andrew Lovett in Antwerp whilst he was on active service during the 1939-1945 war. He claims he liberated her she hotly denied that!
In December 1946 she travelled to Britain for the first time. They married 1st February 1947 in one of the worst winters on record. Mam had rarely seen snow and that year in Wales it was feet deep and lasted months.Having lived most of her life in big cities, moving to a small town in Wales would have been a huge culture shock. Her flat in Belgium had indoor plumbing and electric, the house in Pontypool had neither. The lavatory was outside, you had to go down to the cellar and out to the back yard to get to it. Lighting was gas mantles and lamps. Cooking was on an open coal range which had to be blacked, a chore that she had never heard of and never mastered.
She adapted to her new culture, language and life and lived in Wales for over 50 years, by the end considered her self more Welsh than Belgian.
She loved to travel and even into her eighties visited Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Africa to see her son, she was planning a holiday in Bulgaria the year she died. She died in Bristol whilst visiting her son.
She was dearly loved by her children and adored by her grandchildren.
She was stubborn, independent and infuriating at times but I miss her so very much
Mam never talked much about the war, just odd bits and pieces then she would clam up and change the subject. Living in an occupied country couldn't have been easy, the shortage of food was the thing Mam mentioned most often.Sometime during the occupation Mam trained as a Nursing Aide and was sent to work in a German Hospital, it wasn't voluntary, she said she wasn't very good at it (deliberately did more harm than good?), then went to Brussels to work for the German's as a typist, about that time she also joined the resistance movement. All we know of that period is that she carried maps for the resistance, if caught she would have been shot. She saw several friends killed during air-raids and her fiance was also killed.
She met my father Thomas Andrew Lovett in Antwerp whilst he was on active service during the 1939-1945 war. He claims he liberated her she hotly denied that!
In December 1946 she travelled to Britain for the first time. They married 1st February 1947 in one of the worst winters on record. Mam had rarely seen snow and that year in Wales it was feet deep and lasted months.Having lived most of her life in big cities, moving to a small town in Wales would have been a huge culture shock. Her flat in Belgium had indoor plumbing and electric, the house in Pontypool had neither. The lavatory was outside, you had to go down to the cellar and out to the back yard to get to it. Lighting was gas mantles and lamps. Cooking was on an open coal range which had to be blacked, a chore that she had never heard of and never mastered.
She adapted to her new culture, language and life and lived in Wales for over 50 years, by the end considered her self more Welsh than Belgian.
She loved to travel and even into her eighties visited Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Africa to see her son, she was planning a holiday in Bulgaria the year she died. She died in Bristol whilst visiting her son.
She was dearly loved by her children and adored by her grandchildren.
She was stubborn, independent and infuriating at times but I miss her so very much
She was born in Antwerp, Belgium to Louis and Maria Helena Doossche, they were first cousins. She had an older brother Peter and a younger sister Helene.
Mam never talked much about the war, just odd bits and pieces then she would clam up and change the subject. Living in an occupied country couldn't have been easy, the shortage of food was the thing Mam mentioned most often.Sometime during the occupation Mam trained as a Nursing Aide and was sent to work in a German Hospital, it wasn't voluntary, she said she wasn't very good at it (deliberately did more harm than good?), then went to Brussels to work for the German's as a typist, about that time she also joined the resistance movement. All we know of that period is that she carried maps for the resistance, if caught she would have been shot. She saw several friends killed during air-raids and her fiance was also killed.
She met my father Thomas Andrew Lovett in Antwerp whilst he was on active service during the 1939-1945 war. He claims he liberated her she hotly denied that!
In December 1946 she travelled to Britain for the first time. They married 1st February 1947 in one of the worst winters on record. Mam had rarely seen snow and that year in Wales it was feet deep and lasted months.Having lived most of her life in big cities, moving to a small town in Wales would have been a huge culture shock. Her flat in Belgium had indoor plumbing and electric, the house in Pontypool had neither. The lavatory was outside, you had to go down to the cellar and out to the back yard to get to it. Lighting was gas mantles and lamps. Cooking was on an open coal range which had to be blacked, a chore that she had never heard of and never mastered.
She adapted to her new culture, language and life and lived in Wales for over 50 years, by the end considered her self more Welsh than Belgian.
She loved to travel and even into her eighties visited Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Africa to see her son, she was planning a holiday in Bulgaria the year she died. She died in Bristol whilst visiting her son.
She was dearly loved by her children and adored by her grandchildren.
She was stubborn, independent and infuriating at times but I miss her so very much
Mam never talked much about the war, just odd bits and pieces then she would clam up and change the subject. Living in an occupied country couldn't have been easy, the shortage of food was the thing Mam mentioned most often.Sometime during the occupation Mam trained as a Nursing Aide and was sent to work in a German Hospital, it wasn't voluntary, she said she wasn't very good at it (deliberately did more harm than good?), then went to Brussels to work for the German's as a typist, about that time she also joined the resistance movement. All we know of that period is that she carried maps for the resistance, if caught she would have been shot. She saw several friends killed during air-raids and her fiance was also killed.
She met my father Thomas Andrew Lovett in Antwerp whilst he was on active service during the 1939-1945 war. He claims he liberated her she hotly denied that!
In December 1946 she travelled to Britain for the first time. They married 1st February 1947 in one of the worst winters on record. Mam had rarely seen snow and that year in Wales it was feet deep and lasted months.Having lived most of her life in big cities, moving to a small town in Wales would have been a huge culture shock. Her flat in Belgium had indoor plumbing and electric, the house in Pontypool had neither. The lavatory was outside, you had to go down to the cellar and out to the back yard to get to it. Lighting was gas mantles and lamps. Cooking was on an open coal range which had to be blacked, a chore that she had never heard of and never mastered.
She adapted to her new culture, language and life and lived in Wales for over 50 years, by the end considered her self more Welsh than Belgian.
She loved to travel and even into her eighties visited Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Africa to see her son, she was planning a holiday in Bulgaria the year she died. She died in Bristol whilst visiting her son.
She was dearly loved by her children and adored by her grandchildren.
She was stubborn, independent and infuriating at times but I miss her so very much
