The Spy Who Came to Our House Was Younger Than We Realized

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A Nationality, a Height and Age all point to one question, “Is my Partner Australian?” In today’s world where there are many immigrants from many countries, including Australia, we know that there can be difficulties when it comes to the matter of how long an immigrant is legally permitted to remain in a country. For many years, Caroline Gidiere was an Australian citizen by naturalization but, after moving to the U.K. in the sixties, she obtained an Australian passport in accordance with the Immigration Act of that day. This meant that she had to relinquish her citizenship of Great Britain and she moved to Australia in pursuit of a career in journalism.

However, despite changing her name (Caroline is not originally from Great Britain) and despite being a dual national, it has been almost forty years since Ms. Gidiere has been seen in public. The only known photographs of her were taken when she appeared in an exhibition at the Melbourne Institute of Travel and Tourism (MIRTA). Though Ms. Gidiere did mention in a later speech that she was approached by an “American” in the hope of finding a partner for life, her search for an “aperiod” partner appears to have come to a disappointing end. Her death has also been announced but there is no confirmation as to whether this is related to cancer or another illness. There are many theories about what led up to Ms. Gidiere’s untimely death but, whatever the cause, her lack of communication with her family and friends leaves them searching for answers and closure.

In her biography, A Partner for Life, Ms. Gidiere referred to the fact that her Nationality British was not her first choice for a partner. She was born in Paris, where nationality was not even a legal matter. After the war, she lived in Britain and this is where her love life blossomed. However, it seems that her decision to change Nationality was not for the right reasons. Her biographer suggested that perhaps her “sense of identity” was so strong that it superseded the need for a passport and thus left her open to all possibilities that came her way in her life. However, some people would like to see more Nationality involvement in a relationship as it is the wish of many that Nationality is no longer a barrier in finding love.

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