JANINA WORBOYS
Refugee
28-7-1920 - 29-1-2016
The life story of Janina Jadwiga Zajiczek - "Janka" - began in political upheaval in Poland. She was born in a wayside inn during the Bolshevik invasion of eastern Poland. Her parents had fled their home in order to stay behind retreating Polish lines.
The Communists were eventually routed and my grandparents Stephanie and Jan Zajiczek were able to return to their smallholding in a village 80 kilometres east of Lwow. 
Jan was in the Polish police force until injury resulted in his retirement with a small pension. The family then moved to the nearby town of Zlochiv, where they established a delicatessen.
Janina and her younger brother attended the Zlochiv Gymnazium where they received a good education in a range of studies including the English language.
In 1938 Janina enrolled in domestic sciences at the Lwow polytechnic. Her father considered it a more useful study than her dream of architecture.
In   September 1939 Poland was invaded first by the Nazis then by the Soviets. In the eastern regions Communist authorities instigated a process of Sovietisation. Polish officials, politicians, civil servants, academics and clergy were deemed a threat to Soviet rule and viewed as "criminals".
In   April 1940 my grandfather was arrested after Soviet soldiers found an "incriminating" empty gun holster during a two-hour search of the family home. He was imprisoned in the Castle of Zlochiv and his fate can only be surmised.
Ten days later the family were roused by soldiers in the early hours and told to dress and pack bedding, extra clothing, food and other important items. The three family members and their baggage were loaded into a truck which already held Janina's grandfather, aunt and young cousin.
They were taken to railway yards where they were crammed with more than 40 other deportees into a cattle truck.
The boarded-up windows allowed little ventilation or light. There were some bunks and a hole in the corner for a latrine.
For two weeks the train was shuttled around the rail network of southern Russia. Occasionally they were provided with a pot of thin soup and a kettle of water. Diarrhoea was rife.
About 2500 kilometres from their hometown Janina's family was finally unloaded at Chelyabinsk, east of the Ural Mountains. From there they were trucked south to a small farming commune, or kolkhoz, overlooking the Tobal River on flat steppes in northern Kazakhstan.
The family was able to rent a sod cabin which provided good shelter during the harsh winter months. All the family except elderly grandfather were given work weeding crops, tending the orchard and helping in the dairy in exchange for basic rations.
After Germany invaded Russia in 1941, the Soviets negotiated an alliance with the West. All Polish prisoners of war and detainees were released.
Janina's family left their commune in   August 1942 and travelled by train and truck convoys south through Kazakhstan to Tehran in Persia. There were many stops and changes. They often had to crawl under trains and across tracks, half-carrying poor grandfather.
In Tehran, tent cities housed thousands of deportees from all parts of Russia. After several weeks the family was processed for resettlement in East Africa. Sadly, during the passage through the Persian Gulf , grandfather died and was buried at sea.
In early 1943 the family arrived in a Polish resettlement camp on the edge of a jungle near Lake Kyoga in Uganda. The camp buildings, flower gardens and welcoming community made them feel as if they had reached paradise.
Janina enthusiastically participated in camp activities, and during one of the outings she met Englishman Don Worboys. A Nyanza Sailing Club member, he took the camp's youngsters sailing on Lake Kyoga. On Boxing Day 1945 they married in the Polish settlement's church.
For the next 14 years Janina and Don enjoyed an idyllic life in a beautiful country. Daughters Eve and Sylvia were born at the Mengo Hospital in Kampala.
As Britain began to relinquish government of her East African colonies, Don and Janina decided to emigrate to Australia, chosen for its warm climate and good prospects.
Our ship the P&O Stratheden berthed at Station Pier, Melbourne on   June 30, 1959. Eight months later a third daughter Camilla, was born at the Benalla Base hospital. (Mum had been atypically seasick on the voyage!)
At first, Janina felt isolated from her mother and relatives in Canada and Europe, but adapting to Australian life became easier once she connected with Polish migrants in Benalla and then Melbourne. She was later able to visit Poland and Canada to visit her family and learn how they had survived the war and the post-war years.
For Janina, Australia was a place where she and her family had been able to gain a sense of belonging and thrive. It is a country that has escaped the irrational fear, unspeakable cruelty and incomprehensible destruction of war, and a place to practise religion without persecution.
She enjoyed her later years safely within a caring community.