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Bernardine was born in the Javan jungle. Still there as a teenager she was taken prisoner by the Japanese. After a life of perseverance, she found joy as a mother and an artist.

Bernardine was a teenage POW in Java. Late in life she found she was an artist. In between she felt she was forever packing her few possessions and moving on.

She was born in the remote jungles of Central Java, and lived the life of middle class comfort until it was all torn apart by the invasion of the Japanese army. She was only a teenager when she became a prisoner of the Japanese and moved from camp to camp enduring enormous hardship. Her memories of those times are extremely vivid – sometimes wretched, sometimes funny. Once in all those years they were given an egg to eat. One egg. To her amazement, they were even given a choice – boiled or fried. So hungry were they their favourite pastime was swapping recipes.

With liberation the family were reunited and brought to Australia. Here Bernadine met and married her first husband and then returned to the wilds of South-East Asia to work and raise a family among the Melano natives. After many years in Malaysia, they returned to Australia and further turmoil. They moved to Melbourne, the marriage broke up and several years later there was the tragic loss of her son, Michael at the age of thirty-three. Through it all Bernadine persevered and prospered, studying at university, meeting and marrying her second husband Tony Williams, discovering her talent as an artist, and enjoying the great success of her daughter Maggie and son Jim.

Cover Type: soft back
Published by: This Is My Story
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