Growing up in Amsterdam, Mr Stift always wanted to become an engineer on a steam ship, a childhood dream that unfortunately was never realised. He was drafted at age 18, having just finished pre-marine school, when the Dutch joined the Allies in WWII.

His family remained in Amsterdam to witness the horror, while he was deployed to England as a member of the ‘genietroepen’, an army division taking care of supplies and ‘cleaning up’ battle areas once the front line had moved through. I asked him if he ever feared for his life: “No not really. You didn’t think about it that much, at least I didn’t. You were a small cog in an enormous machine. Of course you thought about your family back in Holland. But when you are young you’re not aware of the risks you take.”

After 5 years at war, the Allied forces were close to liberating Europe. Mr Stift returned home to his family in 1945, but it was too late for him to study to become an engineer. “After the war I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I just sailed off with ‘Maatschappij Nederland’,” he says. “It was a big shipping company where I worked for the civil service, a completely different role than I had in mind in the first place. At 25 I was far too old to become an engineer in the engine room and I didn’t feel like studying anymore.”

This job offered M Stift the chance to sail around the world with passenger lines and cargo vessels across countries from Indonesia to America – journeys from three up to 18 months were no exception.

He met his wife at a New Year’s Eve ball in Amsterdam in 1948, shortly after one of his first trips. “We met each other at the ball but I had to leave on a trip 2 days later. So I sent her flowers for her birthday while I was at sea. We married in November of 1948, although I was away quite a lot in between. She always waited for me though, for sixty years.”

Mr Stift and his wife were not able to conceive, so after many years they decided to adopt. They contacted a friend who worked for a Foster Care organisation to help them with the adoption procedure. It was a special moment when the doctor called his wife to announce that a baby was available for them to adopt.

“We didn’t know in advance, not even my wife. So she took a blanket and went to the house where the baby was born. We didn’t have anything for him, not even a bed. I wasn’t at home, I was in Sydney where I received a telegram that I had a son. It was a truly special moment in my life. I was dumfounded.”