![]() ![]() When our son was 10, he was bullied because I was on television regularly so I backed off doing things onscreen. ![]() My husband and I have two children and we have devoted our lives to them. Now there is a plaque at the school saying, "This wing of Dulwich College was opened by Floella Benjamin OBE." She supervised the laundry at Dulwich College. While my father was playing jazz, Marmie had three jobs: laundry, cleaning and babyminding. I learned to smile and to know I was not going to be a victim. You have to fight with integrity, morality, intelligence and self-confidence. At 14 I realised you can't fight the world with your fist. If anyone called me a name, I'd fight them. ![]() My mother explained that some people would hate us because of the colour of our skin but to remember, "It is their problem, not yours." It took me four years to understand what Marmie meant. I realised I wasn't a person in England – I was a colour. People stared at me from the time I arrived and we lived in one room all eight of us. After 15 months my mother sent for us to come to England. My older sister Sandra and I became very close. We wrote to my mum but our letters were censored. We were sent to "Aunties" – not real Aunties, foster parents: my brothers to one place, my sister and me to another. Then, a year later, she said she was going to England and taking the youngest two. In the end my father went to England alone. My mother didn't want to leave us children. ![]() When I was eight, things started to go wrong when my father wanted to go to England to play jazz. ![]()
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