I was born in 1938 in Frankfurt Am Main, Germany. My father was of Jewish background so shortly after my birth he lost his job and we moved in with our grandparents in Hamburg. Early in the following year my parents and two sisters Monika and Renate, together with me in a bundle escaped to England via Holland and subsequently arrived on the 1 March in Sydney. This was a great relief for my parents though also a sadness as neither ever saw their parents again. My Jewish grandparents who had been Lutherans  all  their lives were taken to camp where grandfather was murdered, and grandmother survived to the end of the war blind and sick. Many other relatives were taken to   concentration camps and murdered. Not long after their arrival in Sydney my parents began to take it in turns to go to an Australian familiarisation programme   led by   Quakers in the Devonshire St Meeting House. They fell in love with Australia, and both joined Friends in 1941. My father  said he was always a Quaker at heart.

As children dad took us regularly to Meeting where we were Sunday Schooled by the Swan sisters who became honorary  Aunts    to us. In Meeting for the last 15 minutes I counted the ladies hats and listened to the colourful language coming from the terraces nearby. When I mentioned some of these words to Dad, he said I wouldn’t hear them if I was truly in silence. Not very impressive for a 7-year-old. At 12 years I decided I was going to be a nun and for a year I attended a local Catholic Church. I loved the drama of it, the Latin, the music and the incense.  I was already heavily involved in an acting studio in Sydney. My parents held Young Friends Meetings in our home and that was my only contact with Friends until at 18 years I took a job as governess on a sheep station and thought I would apply for membership of Quakers. I was visited on the property and subsequently accepted into membership in 1957 where I have remained. It is my home and my support. As a young married with two sons I became very involved in the establishment of Wahroonga Meeting, teaching the   Children’s Meeting and organising Nativity Plays. My late brother Chris, born in Australia, was a great acting companion. We had a group called the Strolling Players and even performed once at a Yearly Meeting.

My children are grown, and I am blessed with 8 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren scattered around the globe. I have worked as an academic in Politics and Women’s Studies and was very involved in the Women and the Church movement and in feminist activities generally. A strong women’s group    in which I was involved organised In Memory of Women Raped in War which we marched for on Anzac Day. We trained     the participants in non-violent techniques which served us well when the police arrested 180 of us.

In 1984 I met and fell in love with Myra. We have partnered for 40 years and   married two years ago.

. After leaving teaching Myra and I established a house, Mysa Cottage, for 8 adults with intellectual disabilities and ran a theatre for them for ten years. Two of the erstwhile residents of Mysa Cottage have become firm friends. They are men living with Downs Syndrome and once a month they spend three days with us which is fun.