I was Thursday's Child

Thursday's child has far to go, says the poem. From birth in Canada to growing up in England as a Navy child in the Depression and WWII, Jillian Jelliffe tells of her childhood and recalls the stories that shaped her character in a world very different to today. After qualifying as an Occupational Therapist she married a doctor and together they served five years in colonial Nigeria. In 1959 they emigrated to Australia where they settled and raised a family of four boys. With her father away for long periods as a Navy officer, and her mother absent for periods with mental heath issues, Jillian grew up as flotsam, as she describes it - living in a number of homes and at attending different schools in her formative years of childhood, in the lead up to and during WWII. Her training as an OT, subsequent marriage to a doctor and their sojourn to Nigeria for five years provides wonderful insights into colonial life at the time. After emigrating to Australia, Jillian finally finds a place to call home permanently, ending her life journey around the world.