Missing

Wartime experience in Britain during World War Two left thousands of empty spaces where once buildings and streets had been. It simultaneously left gaps in families, often with far-reaching consequences. In this paper, I reflect on one such case in my own family. I examine how the devastating loss of a particular family member as a consequence of an unlucky combination of time and place played into a silent history of earlier losses connected to physical migration, experiences which had traumatic impact decades later. The interweaving of physical place, space, and gaps, with their emotional and unconscious counterparts is explored in a narrative which also traces their ripple effect through time. As part of this meditation on my family's history, I draw on research on the impact later in life of early childhood experience of maternal depression, and on studies concerning the emotional impact of migration.