yield a miraculous cure, but sadly it was unavaiing and Carl died immediately before the outbreak of World War II. According to his wishes, he was buried in his native Denmark
All three children had earlier displayed considerable musical talent, Patrick as a violinist, Peter as a cellist and Suzanne as a pianist. By the time Pat was nine years old he was already the soloist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with all his wages according to Pat being conveyed by Mary into the family account. Soon after Carl's burial, Mary set off for London with her three children in order that they might further develop their musical careers.
By the time I was born my dad was sufficiently established as a professional musician to be able to ensure that my brother and I have a good start in life. We suffered none of the hardships he'd been forced to endure.
He'd been married seven years by then, to a Canadian singer, my mother, the former Miss Ann Watt who'd been born Angela Jean Watt in the Canadian city of Brandon, Manitoba. However, while still an infant she'd moved with her parents and four siblings to the Grandview area of east Vancouver.
Grandview's earliest settlers were usually tradesmen or shopkeepers, in shipping or construction work, and largely of British origin. My own grandfather James Watt a carpenter by trade had been born in the little town of Castlederg in County Tyrone, Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Her mother was from Glasgow, Scotland, having been born there to an English father hailing either from Liverpool or Manchester, and a Scottish mother.
Like my father she's been born with a prodigious natural musical talent, and by the time my dad had moved to London she was already a highly accomplished and successful singer of both Classical and light music, notably with Vancouver's legendary Theatre Under the Stars. During the war, she broadcast to the troops with the Canadian Broadcasting Company, performing songs by Richard Rodgers, Victor Herbert and others. She moved to Britain after the war, although there was a time when she might just as easily have moved to the US. However, a ticket came up for her to travel by boat to the United Kingdom, and she snapped it up.
She met my dad a struggling violin player from Australia through their shared profession, and together they set about conquering the music world. They married in the summer of 1948. Seven years later, they decided to have their first child, and I was born
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