I was just seven years old when we arrived in New Zealand from the USA. I'm not sure I had entirely grasped the concept that we were here 'for good' and there was no returning to the home I'd known in America.
It would've been September or October by the time my parents bought a small bach in Murray's Bay on Auckland's North Shore, and of course time for my sister and I to be enrolled in school. I don't recall too much about those early days - I was probably placed in what was known then as 'primer 4', just until the end of that year.
What I do remember is meeting my first friend, Agnes, who lived across the street from us. Agnes was a retired nurse who had served during the war in Egypt and North Africa. I didn't know much about 'the war' then, only that Dad had served in the US Coast Guard and nobody talked about it much.
Agnes was gentle, kind, with one of those very jolly and good laughs that can be quite contagious. I was a lonely wee thing, shy anyway, and Agnes came over to introduce herself to 'the new family', bearing a bag of lemons from her garden. These were most welcome as everyone, apart from me, had come down with a ghastly 'flu that laid them out flat.
Not sure how I escaped the contagion, but Agnes invited me to spend time at her place while everyone recovered. I toddled over there most days, helped her in the garden, drank cups of hot tea (this was a new experience because we drank iced tea) sweetened with these little white tablets called 'saccharine' that she kept in a small tin by her 'tea trolley', and played with a cat named Kuddgie Pie, a noisy and fractious Siamese who lived next door and liked to visit. Agnes was very interested in space aliens, often referring to the book 'Chariots of the Gods' by Erich von Däniken, and space in general, and I always remember her saying, 'You don't want to throw any rubbish out of your spaceship because it'll just follow you around.' I suspect she'd be horrified by all the 'space junk' that now circles the earth.
Sometimes we went down to the shops in her Morris 1000 car she called 'the Grey Lady', to buy a treat or two for the demanding Siamese menace and one for ourselves.
I know I must have driven poor Agnes bonkers with my frequent visits, because they continued long after the 'flu left our house. She was unfailingly patient, listened to my weird stories and acknowledged my loneliness in a way that was both kind and appropriate for a young kid.
I made friends when I started school, found my way, but Agnes remained a good mate to us, part of the family, for the entire time we lived in Murrays Bay, and that was a long while. Most Friday nights, she'd come over with her knitting and we'd all watch the Friday Night Movie on TV, tea and biscuits and chat to follow.
Agnes loved golf and, one bright, warm day whilst playing out on her favourite course, she passed away. I was overseas when she died, but Mom went to her funeral and said it was a 'lovely remembrance' for dear Agnes, my first New Zealand friend.