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Vanessa Robertson found hidden treasure when she took the initiative and asked her father some probing questions about his life.
Her genuine interest meant he told her many interesting yarns, in addition recording 16 tapes of recollections, while in his 80s, for her.
“I always found his life fascinating, and over the years I got a lot of stories out of him,” Vanessa says.
The result was her recently published book I Asked, and He Talked – described as “an extraordinary story about an ordinary man who encountered major historical events and overcame personal hurdles as he traversed the 20th century”.
It is written in the first person, so readers can hear the voice of Vanessa’s father, Harold Lourie Robertson, who died in 2010 at the age of 92.
His mother died when he was a baby, and he was adopted out – “handed to two ladies at a railway station,” as Vanessa says.
There are tales of day-to-day life during his World War II army service in Italy, where he fought in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
“They aren’t the kind of war stories you find in a documentary,” Vanessa says. “He tells a good yarn and much of it is funny. It wasn’t all about the trenches. He was in Italy for three years and he learned to cook Italian food and went to an opera.”
For locals, a key point of interest is that Harold spent a number of years as a young man living in Silverdale in the 1920s.
Vanessa says her father loved Silverdale, and nearby Red Beach. At that time, he was living with his adoptive father, who owned the general store, and remembered a time when he rode his horse and was largely free to do as he pleased.
“He delivered groceries from the store to the gum diggers in a horse and cart,” she says. “He had an adventurous time and talks about the kauri logging, Wade Hotel and having fun at the beach.”
The book was written over several years, started while Harold was still alive and largely completed in 2022.
Vanessa says her advice to anyone is to take the time to ask questions of their fathers while they can. Not all will respond, of course, but many will.
“We often hear people say at funerals, ‘I wish I’d asked dad about his life’, and ‘men don’t talk about the war’. All you have to do is keep asking – ask specific things like ‘what were you doing when you heard the war had ended’, ‘where did you get your meals’, ‘what sort of food did you have?’
“Those memories and stories are important – otherwise they are lost, and we can still learn from them.”
Book Giveaway
Hibiscus Matters has one copy of I Asked and He Talked to give away. To go in the draw, ‘like’ Hibiscus Matters on Facebook and message us your name and phone number with ‘He Talked Giveaway’ in the message. Or, write your name, address, phone number and the name of the book you’d like to win on the back of an envelope and post or drop into Hibiscus Matters, 21 Florence Avenue, Ōrewa 0931. Entries close Friday, September 13. I Asked and He Talked can be purchased from Wilson Scott Publishing, www.willsonscott.biz/wwii/i-asked-and-he-talked
