EP129: The remarkable life of 94 year old Olive Roberts: orphaned aged 8 in wartime northeast England, before finding true love and embarking on unexpected adventures
Olive recently celebrated her 94th birthday and is still in fine form. Her active mind and unfussy approach to life is refreshing in people of any age, not least those in their 10th decade. She narrates her story in exactly the same way, and even when tragedy strikes - for example the loss of a dear cousin and step-sister in a car accident - she is able to see the bigger picture. This is a lively and spirited account of a long life lived to the full.
Olive's story is a remarkable one. Beginning in the north east of England in the late 1920s, her life encompassed the aftermath of the First World War, the upheavals for Word War Two and the unexpected post war opportunity to travel and see the world.
Born in Morpeth, Northumberland, in March 1928. Her parents had suffered the hardships of a working class upbringing but at the time of her birth were happy and settled into family life. This was all to change with the death of her father, who died in 1934 of TB, the result of a chest weakened by a gas attack during World War One. Her mother married again, but after just two years she died while giving birth to twins. These children were adopted and Olive was left as an orphan.
As Olive's story unfolds, interspersed from extracts from her husband Ron's account of his war years and subsequent word for GCHQ, her resilience and optimism shine through, even as she moves away from her beloved north east to explore the exotic shores of Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Mediterranean. Her account is humorous and knowledgeable, casting lift on the constraints of the 1930s, the fear and exhilaration of the war years and, eventually, the chase to see the world and become immersed in cultures that a person of her background would otherwise have little access to.
From the book, Stepping Stones by Olive Roberts which can be purchased here.
Follow Olive on Instagram here.
