She had met Edward at a wedding ceremony that they were attending. In is interesting to note that at the time Clare was actually going out with Edward’s brother. On coming to England, Edward worked as a crane driver at Nuffield’s, Washwood Heath.

 

Pat commenced her schooling at St Joseph’s in 1947. Members of her family who attended the school were, Eddie, Noel and Rosalie. The other 3 younger children would later attend St. Margaret Mary’s in Erdington after the family moved from Aston to Erdington.

 

Pat believes that Sr. Alfrieda was her first teacher. She also remembers Miss Grundy and Miss Martin. She describes Miss Martin as being “lovely”. She also remembers being entranced by the stories she would tell to the class. It is clear Miss Martin had a very positive effect on the young Pat.

 

Of the teachers Pat remembers, Miss Sidebottom, Mr Cassell and a male teacher, who used to pull some of the boys to their feet by tweaking their hair! She cannot however remember his name.

She also remembers Miss Scally. She is aware that Miss Scally, prior to coming to England, had taught at her father’s school in Dublin.

 

Pat’s best friends at school were Annie and Pat McShane, who she recalls, lived in Lingard Street. She also remembers, Pat Lilley, Lea Taroni, Mary Hickey, Bernadette Priestley, Ann Pretty, John Tocker, Richard Keegan and Maurice Donaghy. From my conversation with Pat, she clearly remembered many of the other former school mates that were mentioned to her.

 

Pat had always wanted to be a hairdresser. This however was not to be, as Sr. Marguerite, the Head Teacher, advised Pat’s mother, that such a job was bad for the back and would cause damage to the finger nails. So advised, Pat, on leaving school, commenced work as a shop assistant at Boots the Chemist, in the New Street branch.

 

Whilst working at Boots she formed a friendship with one of the other girls. It transpired that this

girl’s mother was the store detective for the shop. Pat openly admits that she was fascinated by how she carried out her role and was, in her words, “in awe of her”. So much so that it would help play a considerable part in her later life, many miles away from Boots in the Birmingham City Centre.

 

Over the following years Pat held a number of jobs, she worked at Newton’s Oils, Long Acre as a filing clerk, at Lewis’s Corporation Street in their cash office. She would also work for a considerable time with Group 4 Security as a Store Detective. A position she really loved and enjoyed and no doubt brought into practice skills that she had witnessed from her friend’s mother those years earlier at Boots.

 

In 1962 Pat married her husband, William who was an engineer. The ceremony took place at St Joseph’s and was officiated over by Fr. Slade. They initially moved into a flat in the Bristol Road before eventually moving to a house in Erdington Hall Road, Erdington. During the 9 years that they lived at those premises Pat had her four children, David, William, Heather and Ian.

 

The family then decided to emigrate to South Africa. They settled initially in a place called Springs before moving onto Johannesburg. On arriving in South Africa, Pat was being kept busy being a house wife and looking after the children. However once they had all fully commenced their schooling, it was time, she decided, to go back to work.

 

She went to the local departmental store. It was called Greatermans and was about the same size as our old Lewis’s building in Corporation Street. Initially she was seeking employment as a sales assistant. Having filled in a CV, she was surprised to find out that the store had no recognised security staff. The store had noticed from the CV that whilst in England Pat had worked as a store detective and immediately offered her the position of setting up the store’s security operation. This she did and would continue working so over the next eleven years for the store at a number of their shops.

 

In April 1989, they moved to a place called Phalborwa in the Eastern Transvaal. This was copper mining country and William had obtained the position of Superintendent. Their home was only about one mile from the Kruger National Park, where they would often visit seeing wild animals in their own environment.

 

In January 1990 Pat wanted to do a bit more with the time she now had available to her and approached the local Catholic Priest Fr. Gerry Daly and asked if there was any voluntary work that she could do. Fr. Gerry asked if she would be willing to work in a camp that was being established.

Though this camp was just less than 7 miles from her home, the family had not known about it. The reason was that this was not an ordinary camp!

 

It was here refugees from the neighbouring country of Mozambique were gathering having fled their own country to escape the civil war and the numerous atrocities that were being carried out there.

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique is a country in south-eastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonized by Portugal in 1505.

 

The Mozambican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), and Portugal. The war officially started on September 25, 1964, and ended with a cease fire on September 8, 1974, resulting in a negotiated independence in 1975.

 

The Mozambican Civil War began in 1977, two years after the end of the war of independence. The ruling party, Front for Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), was violently opposed from 1977 by the Rhodesian, and later South African, funded Mozambique Resistance Movement (RENAMO). Over 900,000 died in fighting and from starvation, five million civilians were displaced, many were made amputees by landmines, a legacy from the war that continues to plague Mozambique. Fighting ended in 1992 and the country's first multi-party elections were held in 1994.

 

So you will see that the people of Mozambique had suffered greatly and had tried to move to the neighbouring countries were they tried to establish homes. There is little doubt they were treated very harshly by those countries and as a result many more died. Pat’s experiences in the following paragraphs are not described in full as they are too horrific. It will suffice to say that she witnessed many things that have left her still concerned over the people who she met and helped.

 

On arriving at the camp, Pat found that it was a roughly established environment with about 13.000 people, mainly children sheltering there. The only cover that they had was black plastic sheeting spread over wooden frameworks. This was to protect them from the heat in the daytime and put a flimsy barrier to keep out the night time cold, which could be very severe.

 

Within a very short time of arriving in the camp Pat was in a state of shock. Here she was, just 11 miles from one of the richest towns in South Africa, seeing abject poverty and many dying people, who had been forced to leave their own land due to the corruption and violence of some of their own people.

 

Within a very short time that same day, she had seen the body of a very young child, who lay where it had died. Before that day was out and in the many more that followed, she would see countless more. That evening when she completed her diary she recalls writing, “God, where were you today”.

 

She soon discovered that many of the families who were now living in this “township”, had trekked many miles to get there. The majority having come through the Kruger National Park.

Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. It covers 18,989 square km

(7,332 sq mi) and extends 350 km (217 mi) from north to south and 60 km (37 mi) from east to west.

To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique.

 

On the journey through the park, many related stories of family members being eaten by Lions, crushed by Elephants or shot by park rangers, who did not want the refugees in their country.

In addition to those, there were also those who had lost limbs due to stepping on land mines.

 

The camp residents also suffered greatly from the little food that they now had available to them. In their own land, they had been able to follow excellent diets. The soil being rich for growing. Where they now were, the land was barren and not capable of any real crop.

 

Pat became a provider for the camp dwellers by approaching supermarkets, butchers, grocers, bakeries, farms and the like, scrounging anything that they had intended to either destroy or waste. In this way sustenance was directed to the starving residents of the camp.

 

In the camp there were a number of “witch doctors”. Many of these held the occupants in fear for their lives. They always had to be approached by Pat and other volunteers at the camp when something had to be discussed. It is clear that many of these men did assist the good work that was being carried out.

 

This however was not always the case. Some used their power in ways that only added to the sickness and death in the camp. One such occasion was when it was noticed that young babies were dying. It was eventually discovered that one of the “doctors”, was telling the parents that their baby was possessed. The only cure would be to cut the child's head with a razor. Once this occurred, the child bled to death.

 

On another occasion the deaths of 11 babies was noted over a period of time. Investigations revealed that another of the doctors, again suggesting the possessed theme was giving them battery acid mixed with coke. This was brought to the notice of other witch doctors, who were part of a camp council. It would appear the doctor responsible was not seen in the camp thereafter!

 

Pat recalls the question that she wrote in her diary on the first day. She now says that over the next 3 years, she knew God was there helping them. She feels able to say that when looking at what was achieved. Children stopped dying, a school was built, the first Christmas party, a mobile clinic, a sports day, all came about. In addition a Church and Convent were built near to the camp.

 

It should be noted that whilst Pat was a Catholic, the camp was run by volunteers from many religions. She would eventually be joined by 3 Catholic nuns. Sr. Theresa, Sr. Bartholomew and Sr. Fidelis. These nuns would eventually, through their hard work , help establish the clinic and the school.

 

During her time there it would seem that Pat often