My Stepmother "Peter" and 3 of my 4 siblings.

I found this rare photograph of my stepmother taken just after my Father died in August 2003. With her are my brother Colin, my half brother and sister, Martin and Gillian, Nigel, the first born half brother is the one missing from the photo.

My "Daddy" died at 88, just 7 months after my husband Romy, and I was unable to go back to England for his service or that of my stepmother who died in November the following year.

Martin the youngest at 48, lives in Edinburgh, is divorced, no children. He is an architectural engineer and works too hard, drives too fast! He has been travelling to Russia quite a bit recently. He loves sailing, on one visit Romy and I went sailing with him for 3 days off the coast of Scotland in wild weather. Luckily the love of single malt whiskeys kept us courageous and warm in such adverse weather and managed to tie up at night at little coastal harbours where the biggest building was a pub.

Gillian is 51,she lives just outside of Edinburgh with her artist/photographer husband Bryan. They own an art gallery/gift shop there. She has two children, Angus 13 and Iona 9. They have a beautiful home overlooking the golf course which goes down to the beach along the Firth of Forth. Gillian is a Cordon Bleu Chef, but went into marketing and spent a few years in Dubai in the United Emirates, working in the World Trade Centre there.

My stepmother, Peter was born just outside of Dortmund, Germany. Her real name was Katharina....my father met her at the end of the war when he was stationed nearby.
He was the Commanding Officer at Villa Hugel, the summer home of the financial industrialist Krupps, their home having been expropriated by the British. My Father, Major Grigg was there as part of the English occupational forces, and was involved in trying to locate, move and transport all the stolen art/treasures/ etc back to its rightful places/countries/families. Peter was employed as a translator there.

One of the translators was nicknamed "Freddy", her real name being Fredericke, so they decided Katherina should also have a "boys" name and she was called Peter, it stuck! Only in the last 2 years of his life, my Father decided maybe someone might think he was living with another man and changed it to Peta!!!

Unfortunately for my Mother, (my brother and myself), when my father returned from Germany, he kept writing to Peter and finally brought her to England. Of course a divorce followed, with Peter marrying my Father in 1951 in Caxton Hall in London. Nigel was born the following year, followed by Gillian and then Martin.

All five children got along very well, we were always treated equally and always referred to ourselves as brothers and sisters. My Mother did win custody of Colin and myself. Unfortunately since the death of our Father, Nigel has become estranged now.

Peter was so well educated, she spoke English, Russian, Italian, French and English as well as German and was in University when war broke out....eventually she was taken by the army and forced to work the land, as were all students. They were the landarmy workers. It was an awful time for her.

Her life and her youth was taken from her, life became increasingly difficult.
She and so many were starving after the war, my Father did help out by sending parcels to her, before managing to get her over to England. Her Mother had died early in her life and her Father just before the war. She was brought up by an older cousin, whose husband was in the textile business.

I can't imagine being a German in England after the war, later she told us how she was shunned, spat at etc, and even though she spoke good English, she tried never to talk incase someone heard her accent. Of course she had also broken up a family and that was even worse. However time heals everything and there are always two sides to those stories.

It was nice that they eventually all got along after the initial bitterness etc.

My Mother went on to marry again in 1960 to a wonderful man, who was 30 to her 45.......and they were happily married until she died 40 years later in 2000 at 85.

Peter knew all the great authors, poets, composers, she was a wealth of information on music, loved art and read extensively. She learned to cook english food, with a lot of help from my brother Colin, learning to cook Roast Beef and Yorkshire. But, her pork roasts were out of this world and her german cooking was exceptional. She loved flowers and gardening, walks in the country, missed her homeland so much for such a long time, but slowly german visitors started coming and she did go back a few times, but not enough of course. She loved nothing better than to sit back and listen to classical music.

Nigel, 54, is married with a daughter Estee....he lived in Holland and then Taiwan for many years, teaching English to the Taiwanese before coming back so Estee could get an english education. He taught in England as well. Estee has now finished school and remains in england but Nigel with wife Aina has gone travelling again. I am not sure where.

So now you have most of my family..............my stepfather is my next post, if I can find a photo.....he was a Captain in the Merchant Navy, retired now of course and living in southwest England...stay posted...his life is very interesting.