Mum
Born to Polish parents in a refugee camp in Italy in 1947. Her father survived being a POW in a concentration camp, her mother, grandmother, auntie, older brother and uncle arrested by the Soviets and put into a labour camp in the Russian Steppes. Released in June 1941, they made their way through British Mandate Palestine and into North Africa. Her uncle served at Monte Casino and then repatriated the family back together in Italy. Disposed by the post WWII annexation of east Poland by Stalin, the allies resettled the family in England. She grew up poor but intelligent and hard working, becoming part of the vanguard of nurses who wrested nursing into the modern profession it is today. Two degrees, a post-grad lecturing post, two boys, a husband and still going strong.
Mum. My force of nature.