Jean is my wife’s grandmother and she has an incredible story, having been separated from her family at the age of 14 after her mother was taken prisoner of war in Hong Kong.

“Come 1940, when the Japanese bombed Hawaii and the war was on the Pacific, they said ‘Out’… and I don’t think we really knew where we were going, we just knew we were going out and within 36 hours every woman and child had to go.”

Jean heard little from her mother during the war years, when her mother had been taken prisoner.

“All I knew is how it used to break my heart [receiving those letters] and I would ball my eyes out when I got them. They were a year or so old when I got them anyway, so I still didn’t know if they were ok.”

To hear what Jean Lindsay has to say about human resilience through significant personal challenges, listen to Julian Leeser MP’s podcast, Getting a Grip with Jean Lindsay.