Werner Schmidlin - The Long Journey From B. to C.: A Migrant’s Story

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Joshua Books

PO Box 1623

Buddina 4575

Queensland Australia

Copyright Werner Schmidlin

First Printed 2017

The right of Werner Schmidlin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act.

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Category: Autobiography: Author

Front Cover:

This photograph appeared on the front cover of a book titled: Queensland in Colour.

It was published in the 1970's, by photographer John Carnemolla.

My thanks and gratitude to John for his permission to use this photograph, free of charge.

I dedicate this book to my beloved wife Karola, whose unconditional support and encouragement made it possible for us to succeed in this country. She was my rock and the one I could totally rely on. There were many ups and down and challenges for us in Australia, but with Karola beside me she went through thick and thin with me and, we overcame all our difficulties. I had known Karola for 66 years, and we were married nearly 61 years when she passed away on the 9th of December, 2014. RIP, Karola.

Karola suffered from Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) which is a group of diseases that affects, to a greater or lesser extent, the production of normal blood cells in the bone marrow. In MDS, abnormal bone marrow stem cells produce increased numbers of immature blood cells. These cells do not grow properly and often die prematurely. This results in fewer red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets being produced. The most immature blood cells are called blasts and the higher the number of blasts, the greater the chance of MDS progressing to an acute leukaemia.

For over eight years Karola had to depend on blood transfusions to stay alive. However, blood transfusions also have another side to them; they deposit iron into the recipient, which the body cannot get rid of. She had to take a daily dose of chelate to remove that iron from the 'foreign' blood, which in turn affected her kidneys. In the end her life was taken away by kidney failure and acute Leukaemia.

I would like to thank my two daughters, Sonja, and Doris, and the many friends who encouraged me to publish my life story. A special thank you to Sonja for doing all the proof reading for me.

Werner Schmidlin

Yorkeys Knob, Queensland. Australia.

2017.

This book is an account of my life experiences and the long journey from the picturesque village of Bischoffingen on the Kaiserstuhl, in the southwest corner of Germany, to Cairns in tropical North Queensland, Australia. The thrust of this book lies in my journey, mental and physical, between the two salient points of B ischoffingen and C airns. It is a migrants story.

It is a narrative of my life as a youngster in Germany, and a reflection of the effect on me as a child growing up through World War Two. It includes interesting facets of life in pre, and post-war Germany, until I left for Australia. The book also focuses on what it was like to arrive in a new country with a different language and customs, a pregnant wife, a fourteen-month-old daughter, and a mere ten shillings in our pockets - way back in 1954. It was a long, hard road from our little village, nestled between the Black Forest to the east and the Vogue mountains in France to the west, to eventually settling in Cairns in tropical North Queensland, very close to the 17th parallel south of the equator.

The single most important factor which spurred me on to write this book was to tell our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (and for that matter the whole world) my life experiences: Experiences of the ravages of war in Germany and what young people did, so that todays youth can compare conditions between then and now; and what it was like to start in a strange, new country from absolute scratch. I was going to publish this book in the late 1990's, but not knowing a thing about publishing a book, I didnt proceed with it. However, family members and friends who read my many stories kept urging me to publish it. My doctor said to me recently, "Werner if you publish this book, Ill be the first one to buy it."

And the popular former long-time mayor of Cairns, Tom Pyne, who wrote the Foreword to the ( intended ) book, wrote among other things, This book is full of humour, pathos, disappointments, perseverance, determination and triumph. It is also a remarkable journey of discovery, spanning continents and many years. It is a truly migrant story and one from which we can all learn and perhaps better understand how important the individuals role is in helping to create the whole.

This account of our trials and tribulations in this lovely country that my wife and I adopted, and which in turn adopted us, is sprinkled with humour and sadness, and I hope makes interesting and compelling reading. The learning curve from day one in this country was very steep, but my wife and I never regretted for one moment the decision to exchange Germany for Australia.

Unfortunately, my wife, Karola, passed away two years ago, after a marriage spanning nearly 62 years.

Werner & Karola Schmidlin

In truth, as the eldest son of an old and well-established wine, fruit, and grain farming family, I should not be in Australia. I could have followed a long-established, strongly adhered to tradition that the eldest son would take over the family farm, marrying a local girl and acquiring more land through marriage. I was, however, not a person who wanted to follow the old, well-worn traditional path. I selected a different route, not entirely in keeping with the wishes of my parents, and strong pressure was exerted on me to follow the 'right' path.

There will always be a place in my heart as long as I live, for the rural village of Bischoffingen nestled in the hills of the picturesque Kaiserstuhl in south western Germany, and surrounded by a panorama of vineyards as far as the eye could see. The place where I spent the first 23 years of my life, went to school, experienced the horrors of the Second World War, where I met and married my wife Karola, and where our eldest daughter Sonja was born.