WandaS

GLIMPSES of how Canada worked is about journalistic work I did as a Canadian, for Canadians. Nonetheless, some of my biases may not be hidden. I was born in Warsaw in 1937, am a lifelong Roman Catholic who "enjoys being a girl" as Suzie Wong put it. I moved with my parents to Toronto in '41 when Dad was one of 40 Polish aeronautical engineers brought to work for The De Havilland Aircraft until the end of World War II. Men who then returned to Russian-occupied Poland disappeared, so we became Canadians and all my schooling took place here. By 21 I had a diploma in piano, degrees in general arts from University of Toronto and journalism from Carleton University, had left the parental home, and begun working as a reporter. Curiosity is my defining characteristic. Poking into topics of all kinds until I grasp them clearly enough to be able to explain them to others is my idea of fun. In this memoir I avoid my real name to protect the privacy of siblings in Canada, and especially cousins in Poland who continue to be slightly paranoid. Instead, I use the name WandaS in memory of an extraordinary woman, an aunt who was a key figure in the Polish Underground, paid a terrible price for it, yet thanked God for giving her life and had an unforgettable sense of humour.