My father at 95

What a blessing it is to reach such an age, to have lived through so much change, to have survived and triumphed. My father is 95 today. The Nazi occupation of Warsaw, the Uprising, prisoner-of-war camps, exiled refugee, who built a new life in a new land, contributing to his host country as a civil engineer. Bohdan Dembiński, born in Warsaw on 5 April 1923, grew up in Ochota, in the very building on ul. Filtrowa where General Antoni Chruściel 'Monter' took the decision to launch the Warsaw Uprising. When asked by journalists whether he knew that the Home Army's HQ was in the building in which he lived, he answered that he didn't know that his brothers were both in the Home Army, nor did neither of them know he was in it, such was the discipline of conspiracy.

Like the Queen, my father has two birthdays, an official one (5 March) and the real one (5 April). The family story is that at his christening, the guests were not entirely sober and the wrong month was entered on the birth certificate.

I wrote about my father's wartime experiences (here and here), but it's worth pointing out some of the work he did as a civil engineer in post-war Britain. He worked for almost his entire career for one company - West's Piling, one of the UK's leading specialists in foundations. In 1961, we lived briefly in South Wales, where my father was engaged in designing the foundations for the mighty Llanwern steelworks (below).

 And towards the end of his career (my father worked until he was a few months short of his 70th birthday), he designed the pilings under Canary Wharf in London's Docklands.

In exceptionally good health for his age, my greatest hope for my father is that he will be strong enough to visit Poland for the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in August 2019.

[My father's biogram at the website of the Warsaw Uprising Museum]

Sto lat, Dziadzio Bohdan - and then some more!

This time last year:
Happy 94th to my father...

This time two years ago:
HOT! 24C in Warsaw 

This time three years ago:
COLD! Snowy Easter Sunday in Warsaw

This time four years ago:
Happy 91st to my father!

This time five years ago: 
My father at 90

This time six years ago:
An independent Scotland - what if?