Bombed Out of Greenock

I was born Mary Greig in the home of my grandparents in 16 Hepburn Street, Dundee in 1935, the second daughter of Joe and Mem Greig. My father had been unemployed for a few months and decided to go to Canada. Interviews were taking place in the Labour Exchange. When he saw the queues he was about to go home but saw a lady at a desk so asked about a job. 'I can get you one in Greenock' - so to Greenock we went - Mum, Dad, sister Anna and me & the baby (my wee sister was born in 1937. We stayed there until we were bombed out when Mum took us back to her Mum's in Dundee. Anna and I stayed with our grandparents until our Mum came back a year later.

I went to SS Peter & Paul's School. I went to St John's in 1945 and left in 1950. Having decided to work with children I applied to the Education Department for a job as a nursery nurse. I worked in Beechwood for a year, then started my training, working three days in Ellengowan and two days at Seymour Lodge. Two years later I was a N.N.E.B.

In 1957 I married Peter Smith and two years later we moved to Thurso in Caithness. We had four children, three of them still stay in the north of Scotland and one lives in London. We came back to Dundee in 2000.