Shirley fulfils her mother's dream

In 1961, her aunt, Irene Ireland, left the Black Country for a new life in Australia. Shirley's mother, Sylvia, longed to visit her sister and her family but Irene died eight years later. However, just before she died Sylvia got Shirley to promise to travel there in her memory.

It took another 23 years but retired nurse Shirley, aged 67, of Brettell Lane, Amblecote, Stourbridge, went on a cruise to Australia which stopped in Sydney.

She had her photograph taken outside the Opera House holding a picture of her mother and father. "Sydney Opera House was Australia to my mother. That was the one place she had always wanted to go," said Shirley, who saved money from selling her late parents' house for the trip.

"It was her dream to go to Australia and when she died it became mine. I managed to get her there in the end by holding her photograph outside the Opera House. I felt her prescence so I knew she was with me."

Her aunt Irene, heavily pregnant, and uncle, army sergeant Ted Ireland and their four children started a new life in Brisbane in 1961, using the Australian Government's £10 assisted passage offer.

Irene and Sylvia kept in touch by letter before Irene died, aged 44, in 1969. Sylvia, who lived with husband Arthur, a van driver for Palethorpes food company, in Leasowe Road, Tipton, was diagnosed with breast cancer and was too ill to travel.

She died in 1986 at 69. Arthur died 15 months later, also 69. Shirley, who has two children, Alan,40, and Sharon, 37, said her mother saved to visit but it did not happen.

Shirley said she agreed to go to Australia to fulfil her mother's dream and added: "My mother would have been very happy that her ambition had been achieved after all this time." She visited in March and plans to return next year to spend five months exploring, meeting cousins and visiting her aunt and uncle's graves, which she did not have time for last time.