OLD LADY'S JOYFUL REUNION WITH SON

Chronicle (Levin), 18 March 1947, Page 8

OLD LADY'S JOYFUL REUNION WITH SON

—Pvess Assoeiation

By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, March 17. Rupported under eacli aria by an aii hostess and a member of the company 's ground stalf, slight and stoo£>ed, a T2,-year-old woman made her way sl^owly up the landing stage in front of "Tasman Empire Airwaj'S base at Alechanics Bay tonight, at the end of a long journey by air from Paris to rejoin her sun wliom she last savv four days be fore the war broice out. Hhe was Mrs. Hermine Hteiner, vvidpw, of Prague. Her son, who is a carpehtdr:-iii AVellington, was waiting among the crowd be itind the barrier when the passengers froui the Bydney flying boat were Ijrought to the landing stage by launch. Hhe had taken only a few hesitant steps along the wooden platform when he climbed over the "barrier and raced down to greet her. After a wait of over seven years. Arrs. Hteiner, who cannot speak Eng lish, escaped from Prague to Franct when the Germans entered Czechoslo vakia in 1938. The French Government granted a passport to her son and his wife in September, 1939, and they left for New Zealand but Mrs. Steiner was rofused a visa. Throughout the war she lived in a Urehch hostel, Jeaving there only about a fortnight ago when she 11 ew from Paris to London to begin the 14,000 mile journey by air to live with her son and his wife and her two grand children who she had never seen.