Cynthia Winter

On my Way to 84 Cynthia Winter

Child of an Australian family of trick cyclists on one side and English aristocracy on the other, Cynthia Winter survived a near miss by the first doodlebug dropped on London and tried her luck in the theatre before joining the WAAF, where she met and married the love of her life, a career serviceman called Tom. In 1951, with their two year old son and new born daughter she was evacuated from Suez to two rooms in Wiltshire with no water or toilet. Carrying on regardless to wherever Tom was "posted", she made homes in Cyprus, Northern Ireland, in West Germany and numerous UK Bases in between. When he was sent to the middle east on unaccompanied duty, Cynthia visited family in Rhodesia, where Tom later joined her and they stayed for 13 years until Robert Mugabe came to power and they returned to England. After three cold years there they went to live in the Western Cape. In 2015 Cynthia, now a widow, landed at Heathrow with a holiday suitcase. Two days later she decided to stay and, once again, without so much as a needle and thread, she made a new home. Now aged 90, Cynthia lives in Cumbria, where she enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, writing and playing with her computer. She says her many blessings include visits from her family, good eyesight, a comfortable bed and her independence.