Life Before Me: from Katy to Kusy

When Katy became Kusy it was the beginning of me.

This is the extraordinary story – in her own words – of my mother, Katy. Plucked from war-torn Hungary in 1945, she is abandoned in London by her father Laszlo and is picked up off the street by Lady Nancy Astor, the first-ever female MP. ‘You look like a tramp,’ observes the snooty aristocrat. ‘You can only stay the one night.’ But one night turns into months, then years as Nancy discovers young Katy’s hidden talents. Along the way, Katy meets and falls in love with a ‘bald little Pole’ called Wojciech and takes his name of ‘Kusy’. The two Continentals dare to hope that Britain will lead to a better future for them both, as well as a place to belong. But when Wojciech’s good nature is taken advantage of, his fragile physical state deteriorates and the darkness descends.
It is not the best time for me to be born.

Frank Kusy