Lila Parks ~ Hong Kong

When mom and dad came to Hong Kong from Shanghai, mom got a job with the Linen Chest, which was disrupted during the three years and eight months of Japanese occupation.

The shop was owned by Ronald Ramsey and his company, Carr Ramsey.

During that time, being Third Nationals, mom taught piano lessons to fellow White Russians who were left to their own devices during the war.

Mom resumed her position as manageress of the Linen Chest after the war and she decided that it would be more beneficial to the company to branch out into ladies’ fashions and accessories rather than sell Swatow lace and other Chinese linen products.

She instigated a number of charity fashion shows and the charity shows continued when Rob Moor bought the Linen Chest and changed its name to Paquerette.

Mom’s old ID card issued in the 1950s (Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

David Hill was the President of the Rotary Club and he met my parents through the fashion shows. Mom and dad got very friendly with David and his wife, Naomi.

Their daughter Deirdre was also a good friend of Lindy’s and used to hang out at our house quite often.

(Click to enlarge)

Sadly, back in April 1950, a good friend of my parents died when a heater leaked gas while he was taking a bath. Misha Mihaleff was a musician and his wife, Olga, was my ‘surrogate’ godmother when I was christened.

I know my parents were both devastated by his death but mom helped Olga out by including her as wardrobe mistress for her fashion shows so that she would have some kind of financial help. It would have been a hard life for someone in HK when the main breadwinner dies as there was no social security or anything like that

The photos below show mom, Lindy, me, Balia, Jenny, Michael and Babushka Yatskin at the Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Happy Valley …