​ Sue McKeil Robbie
July 2016
Interview by Cathy Eaton

 Sue McKeil Robbie from New Zealand spent every summer on Water Street with her grandmother Mildred Simpson.  Yuri Gagarin was here in 1960, and Sue was nine or ten.  She met Yuri on the lawn, and a photo was snapped of them together.  She shook his hand, and he gave her a big bear hug.  A Halifax newspaper photographer snapped their picture, and the caption, “Too bad our countries don’t get along like this little girl and Mr. Gagarin.  Sue came to the house with her husband hoping to find that photograph.  Sue has lived in New Zealand for over 30 years. “It was incredible to meet the first man in space.  It was credible that someone could go to space and come back alive.”