compassion, loneliness and happiness. It is about travel, meeting people, trying new things, finding new horizons, creating and overcoming obstacles and finding happiness through being a survivor. Reflecting over the past seventy years, I start by introducing the ancestors, or the people in 'black' as I always remember them, however we must not forget that they were the very backbone of our existence. They lived by a code of morals and a set of rules that they instilled into our personalities, leaving a conscience within us as to what was right and wrong. And so I was brought up to do what I was told and speak only when spoken to, and to fear a Lord whom I did not know and could not see and to suffer from an inferiority complex as did most good, well behaved children of that era. Born beside the Aberdeen beach in 1935, we moved to Torry across the river Dee just before the war started. I remember vividly the bombings during my childhood and early school years. I left school at fifteen and started work in Boots the chemists in Union Street as a surgical assistant, having left my yearnings to become a great artist. Three years later through promotion, I went to live in Inverness up in the highlands. I got married at twenty to a master butcher's son only to find out very soon he was a paranoid schizophrenic. After ten years living in "hell", I escape with my four children through divorce and back in my hometown of Aberdeen. I go to college to do higher English and art. My book tells of the struggle to keep sane and protect my children. While at college I met my now husband who gave me back my self-respect and the courage to find the real "me". After coming through the ten years of terror and darkness, suddenly I find the world such a beautiful place. We live in the west coast of Scotland for four years then South Africa for six years before returning to Aberdeen. I have enjoyed a life of painting, walking, climbing and writing down all my experiences until I had a triple by-pass a few years ago. Perhaps my story will give hope to all the people who may read it and they will find that life is certainly worth living…

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