Motaba died in May 1972 aged 90. She had been a very influential part of our lives. In spite of being immobile, she really “ran the roost” from her bed in the front room. She was clever, witty, and indomitable and had a soft spot for all her great-grandchildren. Some people knew her as “Divaliben Lakdavalla” and visitors were fearful of her sharp tongue.

However she had a heart of gold and to this day some of us cannot go to her room without feeling her presence there. She learnt to read at the age of 55 when she became a widow.

Mummy and Daddy went to Mombasa for the funeral. Motadaddy, Motamummy, Daddy and Mummy decided to go on a world tour together. They left in July and Ba and Pappa came to stay with us in Kampala.

Ajay and I had gone to Entebbe Airport to see Mummy and Daddy off and Motadaddy and Motamummy actually disembarked and walked to the terminal building and waved to us on the 1st floor. This was the last time we saw Motadaddy. While they were in Europe Idi Amin made the announcement that all Asians had to leave Uganda in 3 months. At that time his comments were not taken seriously and the four of them decided to carry on to U.S.A. and tragically Motadaddy died in New York. He was only 42. We had a tough time as we were grieving for Motadaddy and we had to abandon everything and leave Uganda (with £55 per family). At that time streets were not safe and we heard stories of people being abducted, beaten up, missing, etc, and it was a huge relief when the captain of our aircraft announced that we were out of Ugandan airspace!