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Oral history recording with Anna-Maria Woodford. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 6 of 7 (AV 11502 - 11508)

00.01 Anna Maria talks about the war finishing when she was 6 years old. She remembers the American soldiers arriving in their tanks, and recalls asking an American soldier to marry her. She talks about being reunited with her father, and how difficult it had been for her mother looking after the children on her own. Her mother never had to work. She has a lot of respect for her mother, for bringing up a family on her own from a very young age, as all her family were in Sardinia. She continues to talk about her family, which wasn’t a large family. There were some difficulties between her mother and father’s family. She explains this may have been due to her mother’s family having money, though her relatives were also well off. She talks about other relatives in Sardinia- she describes a cousin in detail, and also her husband was a Major in the army.

06.15 They try to go back to Sardinia more often now they have more time, though much of their time is spent looking after her grandchildren. When they go back they meet up with family, many who have moved away to Holland, and also come back to visit. They meet in the local small bar. She has inherited part of her mother’s house, which she describes. Anna Maria talks about her grandparents’ hometown. She talks about the climate in Wales as preferable to the heat of Sardinia. She is going back to Sardinia to see if she wants to move there. She talks about going back and how she feels there, and the positive aspects of rural Italy. She talks about the people there and the friendly community. She talks of the elegance of Italy compared to British culture. Anna Maria also talks about the difference between Italian and British people, and aspects of British cultures she felt she has adopted. She talks more about possibilities of going back to Italy.

16.35 Anna Maria describes how she met her husband in Knightsbridge at a cafe and then at an Army Dance in Leicester Square.