Citizenship took 53 years for Mobjack resident Barbara Dickinson, but she finally made it. On April 16, the German native took her oath of allegiance to the United States at the immigration office in Norfolk, and she’s glad she finally got it done.

"I’ve had a good life here," she said. "The U.S. has given me a lot. It’s put me where I want to be."

Dickinson, whose maiden name was Barbara Kunze, was born in West Berlin in 1950. She remembers food shortages and walking wherever she went because her family didn’t have a car, but she doesn’t remember being in dire straits. Her family—father, mother, Barbara, and two little brothers—lived in countryside much like Mathews County, and they had a garden to sustain them.

Barbara recalls visiting her grandparents and playing on bunkers built during the war, but those memories have faded with time. Her uncle and grandmother immigrated to the United States, and then Barbara&rsq...