International Women's Day

This is a photograph of Peter's family.   
The women pictured had extraordinary and inspirational lives. 

The three nuns were Peter's great aunts on his Irish mother's side.  They spent decades as missionaries in India teaching children in the poorest most far flung communities .

The older, seated lady was Peter's grandmother on his Polish father's side.  The family lived in south eastern Poland  when the Russians invaded Poland, and in 1940 their land was seized and the family deported to labour camps in Siberia.

 Tragically Peter's father's twin brother froze to death on the journey to Siberia.
Somehow the rest of the family found the strength to survive this awful time and eventually settled in the UK, Canada  and South Africa.
They have been much in our thoughts given the horrific situation in the Ukraine.