Born in 1914 at the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital in Johannesburg, Read looks back on her life as one filled with many blessings. She was the only child of two Scottish immigrants who sought a better life in South Africa, and whose father left for WWI when she was 10 months old and returned when she was six. Read said her early family life was an extremely secure and sheltered one with great love from her mother.
The family then moved to Cape Town, where Doreen attended Ellerslie Girls High School in Sea Point until matriculating in 1931. This was the height of the great depression and her father was unable to send her to university. While in Cape Town, she married her husband, South African engineer Basil Read, before the two moved to Johannesburg in 1946.
“I remember being nervous about moving to Johannesburg because we were leaving all our friends behind. But Basil got a nice job offer in Johannesburg and we lived a happy life here,” said Read.
After initially living in Greenside upon arriving in Johannesburg, her family moved to Hyde Park where they lived a prosperous and successful life. She said, “I have a lot of memories in Hyde Park, including the boys from the high school listening to my husband’s sports cars. They would get so excited.”
Following her husband’s death in 1974, the Read family continued to live in Hyde Park until she moved to San Sereno Retirement Village in Bryanston in 1991.
Looking back on her life, Read said the fondest memories she holds is sitting around the dinner table with her family as they all spoke about their day.
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