Wladyslawa Tanska, 93 – known as Wladzia - was born on at the end of the ‘roaring twenties’ on February 9 1929.
Only at 10-years-old, her life as she knew it living at her parents large farm near Lwow and Brody in Poland ended, when first the Nazi German troops invaded Poland, followed by the Russian troops in 1940.
On February 10 1940, Wladzia’s route to school was interrupted by a Russian soldier and a local official, who told her to go back inside the house and pack up as the soldier pointed a gun at her father.
The devastated family – Wladzia, her little sister Irena, 4, and her parents – were forced into a cattle wagon with other families, her grandparents were picked up too.
“We looked so sad when we were deported to Russia,” she said.
READ MORE: Joy Morrissey MP looks to 'hold banks accountable' in Beaconsfield
For three weeks, the family survived in the locked-up wagons to the Siberian town of Kotlas, where Wladzia’s mother worked in icy water shifting timber and her father worked at Birza at a wood yard.
Without a doubt, deportation to Siberia was the worst time in her life, Wladzia said.
“There was snow, so much snow,” she said.
“The conditions were horrendous, my parents were doing forced labour in the woods.
“The frost was biting their noses and toes.
With Second World War ending, the displaced family was freed from the camp and arrived to Uzbekistan, where her parents and little Irena caught typhoid. Irena didn’t make it and Wladzia languished in an orphanage.
She was united with her mother in Iran and they spent the next four years in Lebanon and in the Middle East – much of it in ill health- until they were united with her father.
Wladzia said: “Lebanon was the best of them all! For the first time since deportation we had a proper house.
“My little sister Zosia was born in Beirut. I went to school.”
Eventually, the family found themselves in England, at the Hodgemoor Camp for displaced people near Amersham, a home for young adult Wladzia for the next ten years.
Wladzia said: “A lot of people thought my little sister was my baby when we arrived to England!
“But I was a student at that time and I didn’t have a boyfriend and my family was too religious for that,” she said in her Little Chalfont kitchen – her home for the past 60 years.
She spoke of the meaning of home and said: “Little Chalfont feels like home, I settled down here.
“I met my husband in the army kitchen, and fell in love. He had been captured and interned by the German army.”
The situation in Ukraine rings close to home.
As a Catholic herself, she keeps praying for Ukraine.
“I feel very sorry, that reminds me what I’ve been through.
“I sympathise, I couldn’t sympathise more than I have.
“I have friends in Ukraine right now, and last time I heard of Jasko my friend in Kiev, was two weeks ago when we spoke on the phone. The line was bad.
“I don’t know if he’s alive, but I’m going to try contacting him again.”
READ MORE: Photo of young girl falls out of purchased book in Wycombe
Like millions of Britons, Wladzia has spent the last two years stuck at home, where she was able to tend to her beautiful flowers despite bouts of dizziness and ill health.
In January, she underwent a risky surgery to remove an unknown tumour.
The now great-grandmother had three children herself, and she’s looking forward to meeting her youngest great-grandson Sebastian, seven-months-old, for the first time.
“I survived, but the memories will stay with me forever,” she said.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here