Imagine your dad being a spy with the British Foreign Office when your were growing up. That was the reality for Jenny Pratt, who lived in England, Turkey and Zambia while her dad was on assignment. This lust for different cultures also took her to Belgium, and later with husband Mike to South Africa, where they lived until moving to Werribee’s Heathglen Retirement Village in 2010. The 77-year-old tells Charlene Macaulay the full story.
Tell me about your childhood – in particular, growing up with a dad who was involved in espionage.
The reason we were living in Turkey was because he was actually spying … I wasn’t aware of it at all, but my sister knew because she was older. There was an English high school for girls in Istanbul. Then I went to Belgium for a year and went back to England.
[Dad] was a very active person. We used to play chess and things like that … we used to do the Telegraph crossword together, and I’ve been doing crosswords ever since.
My brother inherited my father’s cigarette case, which has all the operations that he was involved in … it’s now displayed in a museum.
How did you and Mike meet?
At the time, we were living in Zambia, and he was in the police force. I was out with my brother and we happened to meet and Mike asked me to dance. He said ‘I hope your boyfriend doesn’t mind’ and I said, ‘well, he’s actually my brother’. The day after that, he had to go back to the bush, and then I got a letter from him and we corresponded and he more or less proposed.
When I went to go and visit him in the bush, in those days I had to be chaperoned by someone else. We got engaged by the light of a paraffin lamp. He didn’t know at the time that my father was assistant commissioner of police, so that was a bit embarrassing for him to find that he’d married the boss’s daughter!
You’ve lived all over the world; what brought you to Werribee?
We have two children; one who is still in South Africa and one here. Despite the fact that we were in a retirement village [in South Africa], there was more and more crime and we wanted to visit the family here, but we couldn’t [afford] to keep visiting, so we decided we had to make a choice.
My son lives in Altona, and my daughter is in South Africa.
How have you found Werribee compared to other places you’ve lived?
The last place we lived was Cape Town, which is very beautiful. Here was very flat in comparison, and it takes a little while to see the beauty, but eventually you can see just as much beauty here. Yesterday we were in the You Yangs having a picnic and it was beautiful sunny weather, and it was just gorgeous.
We do bird watching … and we go and do the platypus DNA [down by the Werribee River] and I also enjoy the beach at Altona. I also volunteer at the Rose Garden every Wednesday morning.
Although you’ve lived in many places, you haven’t done much travelling. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
One place I’ve always wanted to go is Japan. My granddaughter’s just been, and I feel very envious.
Do you have any grandchildren?
Two on both sides, a boy and a girl each.
