Babs was born in London, the youngest of six, from parents both Lithuanian refugees. As a WREN in the Royal Navy during the war, she met and married Sam, an engineer in the Royal Canadian Air Force and were together for 40 years. Had three children, Michael b.1946, Corinne b.1949 and Ruth b.1953

My mother was born in east London to Lithuanian parents and was the youngest of six. Her four brothers always treated her as the baby of the family and nicknamed her ‘Babs’ which she was known by right throughout her life-even thought her name was Sarah. Educated in London, she joined the navy (WRENS) at the outbreak of the war and was stationed in Southsea. She met my father, who was in the Canadian Airforce, at a serviceman’s dance in London which blossomed into a true war-time romance. Towards the end of the war, they married and settled in London. She confided to me much later that she insisted on staying in England after she was married as she could not have coped being separated from her family, especially her parents. My mother was a very sensitive, gentle and kind woman who centred her whole life around the immediate and extended family. I felt she never really achieved anywhere near her full potential. It was as if she was intimidated by life. She studied piano at the Royal Academy and some of my earliest recollections of her was playing pieces of Chopin & Beethoven to me at home with such passion and vigour. It was one of the few activities she felt really confident about and often used it as a way of loosing herself- a way of gaining solace. My mother was the one I confided in if I had a problem and she would also act as the go-between me and my father. She seemed to have found a way of dealing with his traditional views and was also expert in suggesting new ideas to my father which he later believed were his own. She was much more relaxed about my education than my father and had she been more confident would have insisted I followed a more artistic & creative route to my schooling. She was an avid reader, especially modern biography’s, and would often recount at mealtimes the exploits of the person she was reading about. Like my father, she was a sociable person and though she was shy enjoyed meeting new people. Many of her friends were very long-standing and a few went back as far as her school days. To me and my two sisters, she often displayed a naivete of modern life(not possible from someone who had spent 4 years in the navy) but I believe this was for our benefit and was another side to her very good sense of humour. Later when I had my own children, she showed herself to be a most loving grandmother. It was very sad she died so young, only 65 years old, as she would have really enjoyed seeing how her six grandchildren had grown into such wonderful young people……..a lasting memorial of her and my father.