a woman of substance

in honour of every woman - strong, beautiful women - who all have an inner strength that sometimes doesn't surface until a time in our life when we need it - this is a story of one of those women

my soul mate's mother was an amazing woman - her name was Desiree - born in Indonesia of dutch heritage - the story goes that her mother was a concubine of an indonesian prince - and she spent her early childhood days in the palace grounds. Her family eventually moved back to Holland where she grew up. WW2 erupted and she met a german soldier and they fell in love - she fell pregnant to him and her village scorned her, punishing her for fraternizing with the enemy.She was marched through the streets and her head was shaved. She gave birth out of wedlock, to a son. Eventually the war ended and her german soldier wanted her and their son to go with him, back to his home 'behind the wall' into east Germany. For various reasons, she decided not to - she could see what kind of life they would lead there and wanted freedom - for herself as well as her son. She bought her son up by herself, eventually meeting my soul mates father. They married and had 3 more children in Holland. He painted houses for a living and he decided that a better life was to be found in Australia.So they sailed here in the early 50's. She was an english teacher and a talented artist - using oils and water colours - creating the most beautiful artwork. Her husband was an alcoholic and abusive - however they went on to have 6 more children ! ! yes, she had 10 children in all. Her husband eventually left her and returned to Holland - leaving her and the 10 children who she had to support herself - on a meagre pension from the Dutch government - she subsidized this by selling her artwork. Each one of her 10 children are all successful, well adjusted people - with families of their own. Sadly she developed a brain tumour in 1990 and died that year. how strong some women are! She accessed that inner strength that we all have.