Institutionalized: 1940

Arriving in England

We have arrived in England. It is nine o'clock in the morning. Our flight took a bit longer than anticipated. Also our flight was delayed a few hours coming to England. We are on our way to customs with our passports and boarding pass stubs. Once we were seen by a customs officer, we headed out the airport with our suitcases.

Once outside of the airport, Greg and I wondered who would pick us up from the airport. Dario never informed us on that detail of our trip to England. We waited a few minutes until we heard our names being called. Once we turned to see who was calling our names, I broke down in tears. The person who was calling us was my mum. I ran towards her with tears of joy running down my face. While I was hugging my mum, Greg said "Surprise!" I told Greg that was one of the best surprises he could ever give me.

After hugging my mum that seemed like an iternity, she told us that we would be staying with herwhile we were in mum told me to get into the car while she and Greg put our suitcases in the trunk. Once we were all in the car, mum told me that would wake us up once we arrived at her house because both Greg and I looked exhausted from the flight. We fell asleep as soon as the car started to move.

Next thing we knew my mum was waking us up. We had arrived at her house. It is just as I remembered it when Greg and I returned from the awful institution just as the war ended. Once we entered the house, we went straight upstairs. I noticed that my old bedroomthat I slept in as a child had been turned into a guest room. The guest room Greg had slept in after returning from the institution is still a guest room. My mum went back downstairs to make us some lunch. Before unpacking, I asked Greg if it was all right with him if I slept in my old room and he in the other guest room. He assured me that he was fine with that. He could tell that it would make me happy.

Once we unpacked, we headed downstairs for something to eat. During our lunch with my mum, she asked what we have been doing since the wedding. I told her that we have done a lot of travelling in our fifteen year marriage. She asked where we have been. We tell her that we have been to Toronto,Nashville in Tennessee in America. We continued to tell her that we also went to Fontana, California near Los Angeles in America. She asked the significance to those places in America. I told her that Dario lives in Nashville Tennessee. Greg told my mum that Fontana, California was a place where he had a severe racing incident before the war and was not injured. We also tell her that there is a car race every year in Vancouver. She asked if we go every year. We said yes we do because it is easy to get to and it is a way to see our friends. She thought that was great. We also told her that we have met other drivers. One of the drivers we met was Dan Wheldon. We told my mum that Dan is from England and also Dario's best friend. We told her that Dan is Dario's childhood friend. She thought it was kind of Dario to introduce us to his friends. We agree with her. We told her that it was nice to meet new people.

After lunch, my mum took Greg and I for a walk around the neighbourhood. It will be nice to see what my childhood neighbourhood looks like now. I can hardly remember it.while on our walk, people stopped to talk with my mum. They did recognize me. They asked me where I have been all these years. I told them that I was sent to an institution for my safety during the war. I continued to tell them that, that was the place where I met my husband. Then continued to say that, after the war I did return home for a few months before Greg and I left for Canada where he was from. The last thing I told the neighbours was that I am living in Canada now and I have a great life there. The neighbours were happy to hear that my life is better now. They also told me that all people who have physical challengesare being treated better now. The next thing they told me made me smile. They said that all the institutions that challenged people were sent to before, during and shortly after the war were all shut down because they were inhumain in the eyes of the government. I thanked then for such heart warming news. Now that the institutions are gone, physically challenged people can live like any other person.