As World War II’s juggernaut
ploughed across Europe
tossing humans like skittles
up in the air around many
countries kind strangers
seeking refuge after their
displacement passed through
Poland’s Matula station
taking with them the newborn
baby abandoned there.
Barely keeping themselves alive
they left her at an orphanage
who named her Anna Matula
for where she was found, she
would always know her place
of origin soon after her birth.
Deported from Poland the
orphans were sent from
country to country finally
to New Zealand where all
seven hundred of them were
allowed to stay when the
communist government
demanded their return.
So Anna Matula in a distant
land married a fellow Polish
orphan raising Polish
New Zealand children,
putting down roots far away.
Previously posted August 2017.
lifecameos 
During the wars life turns upside down. Wonder what is happening in Ukraine and Russia. Who is Anna Matula?
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Anna Matula was a young woman whom my mother’s women’s group used to visit turn about while she and her husband rented a place near us for a few months in the early 1960’s. Anna was pregnant and due to health problems as a result of her childhood wartime experiences she had to stay in bed for most of her pregnancy. Hence the visits. The New Zealand government brought out 700 orphaned Polish refugee children to New Zealand late in World War II along with their caregivers. They stayed in an old army camp for a while to get settled in. Gradually many of them were placed with New Zealand families while the older ones were often apprenticed to New Zealand employers. Anna was one of them and her husband was another. She spoke with a New Zealand accent so she must have been quite young when she arrived here.
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