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From the Telegraph

I was born in Switzerland and that was the main residence where we spent most of our time during the summer. That was her place, her garden, her orchard, and that was very important for my mother.

My mother was born on 4th May 1929, and she spent a lot of time before the war in the English countryside with a miner’s family. The wife had a beautiful garden, and she taught my mother about gardening and plant names.

I later found out why gardening was so important to her. Right after the war broke out gardening for pleasure was out of the question, and later on in the Winter of Hunger (when supply lines to Holland were cut off), there was no food. On May 5th 1945, Holland was liberated – one day after my mother’s birthday, so really, after the most terrible winter of her life, the liberation came with the spring, and with spring came food.

Read in full: Memories of my mother, Audrey Hepburn the gardener