Page 12 - My Memoirs - Max Kurz

I cannot begin to imagine the impact on my mother, but I was not aware of her reaction. My father left a suicide note expressing his sorrow, apologising for his actions, referring to the fact that he was not able to continue, leaving clear instructions for my mother to sell the car, cash in the life insurance and take me and Sabine to Australia to join her family. It left a huge question mark as to the circumstances that brought him to that decision. We are all left with no other option but to make assumptions based on the known events at the time.
Thereafter, I remember Uncle Frank, my grandmother’s brother on my mother’s side organising for us to travel to Australia on the Oransay (Orient Line). The events surrounding our departure remain a blur, other than our trip to Southampton to join this massive ship; I never imagined a ship so big. By today’s standards it was small at only 28,000 tons. Uncle Frank chose to travel in style at my mother’s expense. We travelled first class with all the trimmings including sitting at the captain’s table for dinner in formal dress code. Knowing my mother, she would have been very vulnerable and naïve and subject to the influence of Uncle Frank who had no concern about spending her money.
The trip took 6 weeks. As a 12-year- old that had never travelled any further than Blackpool, the experience was difficult to comprehend let alone write about.
I was a young lad from northern England and was seeing places that I had never heard of, Alexandria in Egypt, the Suez Canal, Columbo in what was known as Ceylon at that time. Different people, landscapes, smells and colour. When we finally landed on Australian soil in Fremantle, the decision was made not to continue but to fly in an aero plane to Sydney to join our family who were anxiously waiting on our arrival. Again, as I had never flown in an aero plane, it was exciting and frightening and as a child, I scared easily.
Our destination was Sydney, Australia, 16,986 kms away on the other side of the globe.
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