Tim's Tales: Ivan’s ice cream van

I rushed up to him and, along with his mum, comforted him. He was unhurt: he’d just got a bit of a fright. I put a pillow under his bedsheet to make him feel safe and cuddled him. I lay with him until he was sleeping again.

Little can be compared to the love for your kids, and their safety is the first concern of any parent. Maybe that’s partly why the terrible scenes coming from Ukraine have affected me so much. As I lay with my son, my thoughts and prayers were with those who are desperately trying to protect their children from the horror and trauma of bombs and missiles. I gave thanks we weren’t there, or in any other war zone, and that a soft pillow and a cuddle was enough to keep my son safe.

The following day I headed to Dunbar to meet Rita Bradd. I had arranged to meet her a while back so she could tell me about her dad’s ice cream van, which was a well-known sight in 1950s Dunbar and East Lothian. But the story seemed even more pertinent now: Rita’s dad, Ivan Chomiak, had been Ukrainian.

We met at Lauderdale Park in Dunbar. The cafe was closed and there were few people around as we sat outside. That was fortunate, as talking about her father in the current situation was emotional for Rita. War had brought him here many years ago and now we spoke as her dad’s homeland was suffering a brutal invasion.

He had died in 2002 and she spoke of her memories of him and her connection to her Ukrainian heritage. She has had a love of Ukrainian choir singing ever since she was wee. There was much she told me and not enough space here to recount it all.

Mr and Mrs Chomiak

But I quickly realised it was also a story about her mother Anneliese. She is now nearly 92 and originally from Germany. She also came to Scotland after the heartbreak and despair of war, when she was still a teenager. It was here she met and married Ivan, where they both became well-known and respected members of Dunbar’s community. Rita suggested I meet her mother, who lives close to the park.

Anneliese warmly welcomed me into her home. She spoke and I listened. She took me back in time to 1945, when she was only 15 years old and living in Poznan with her family. She told me of her experiences of the last months of the Second World War. There was chaos and terrible panic, but her family scrambled onto the last train to the west.

But her father had to stay behind and fight.

She saw him on the platform, peering into the train windows for a glimpse of her to say goodbye.

He called out “where’s my little Anne?” and waved as the train pulled away. She never saw him again. Years later, she discovered he had died in the fighting, although the exact circumstances will never be known. However, she was finally able to find his war grave at Poznan, where both Germans and Russians are buried.

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“War is terrible,” she told me, “unspeakable.”

After the evacuation, Anneliese endured four harsh years, but then in 1949 she took the opportunity to work for two years in “England”. She was part of a group of 20 young German women who came over together. She wanted to learn English, work hard and return home to become a translator.

“You know,” she told me, with a philosophical air, “you can make any plans you want, but fate will direct you.” She wasn’t sent to England but instead ended up in East Fortune, Scotland. And it was there she would meet her Ukrainian husband, Ivan. And of course she didn’t stay for just two years, she found a new home and made a family here.

I was intrigued as to how she met Ivan. She explained that across the way from her accommodation at East Fortune, there was a camp which included displaced Ukrainians who had arrived in 1947. Her friend Ruth had told her about a bus trip to Dryburgh Abbey the camp had arranged. She decided to join the trip. She found herself sitting alone on the bus. This is when Ivan came and sat beside her. A further date didn’t work out but they met again at a bus stop and that was that!

They married and eventually moved into a flat in Dunbar. They were to have three children, of which Rita was the second, born in 1952. Anneliese now also has three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

It was in the early 1950s that Ivan bought his ice cream van and I was intrigued as to how that happened.

Anneliese told me it came from a catalogue; well, not literally! Like many folk, she bought things from a catalogue and paid weekly. One day, the woman who collected the money happened to mention that her daughter was married to an Italian called Enzo Londi who owned an ice cream van. He didn’t need it any more as he was opening a restaurant in Edinburgh.

“I don’t suppose you or your husband would want to buy it?” she asked.

Anneliese had laughed at the thought and when she mentioned the offer to Ivan they both found it an amusing idea.

But then Ivan thought more seriously about it. He realised he’d made lots of contacts in the area. He had worked as a travelling salesman for a Mr Spark, selling items all over the county and beyond. Before that, he had driven fellow Ukrainians to farms all over East Lothian. People knew him and he knew his customers; he decided to buy the van and give it a go.

So that’s how the Chomiak family went into the ice cream business! Well, it wasn’t just ice cream, but also sweets and cigarettes. Ivan became a well-kent sight in his van, which was painted in the national colours of Ukraine. Rita told me of her memories of sitting in it as they drove round the county. Business was so good that her dad bought a second van which was driven by her mum Anneliese.

Another chance comment changed their lives once again and led to the restoration and opening of The Empire in Dunbar.

It had previously been a cinema but was transformed by hard work and determination into a famous cafe and place of social gathering. That is another story, well told elsewhere.

Rita is a poet, writer and musician, and I thanked her and her mum for the privilege of hearing their memories.

Rita walked me back to my car and we spoke some more. She has a deep love of her native land and of her German and Ukrainian heritage. She is very proud and honoured to be a first-generation Scot.

It was a deeply personal story, with hope of new beginnings at its heart.

If you want to help those living through war in Ukraine, please visit gofundme.com/helpukraine

Rita’s book includes her time at sea with 15 Ukrainians and two Russians crew, as she escorted 1864 clipper ship City of Adelaide (Carrick) home to South Australia in 2013. You can find it on her website ritabradd.com