大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Sian, a pupil from Teversham Primary School on behalf of Joyce Neaves and has been added to the site with her permission. Joyce Neaves fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When my husband was called up to serve his country I was left behind. I was scared and very lonely. I was also pregnant and didn`t want to be alone so I went to stay with my mum.
We used to hear the German planes flying overhead and we knew they were German because of the droning noise they made and when they were going to drop the bombs there was silence.
We had an air raid shelter in the street and also in the garden but these were frightening places to have to go as they were 6ft underground and I preferred to hide in the cupboard under the stairs.
My sister in laws house was bombed and a builders yard which we lived close to, also the bridge in Mill Road was bombed several times.
I remember a lodger that my mum had and it was his wedding day when the sirens went off and everybody had to go in the shelter in all their posh clothes half way through the ceremony.
We had a ration book which only allowed us a little bit of food each time. We had to learn to make our food last a long time. Occasionally there were treats of bananas or children would get orange juice.
There were a lot of American servicemen and they always gave out chewing gum and chocolate.
Although things were very difficult we still had some fun and when my daughter was older we used to make her sing on a table in the air raid shelter to keep everyone entertained.
It was a great relief for everyone when the war was over but very sad that so many people had lost their lives.

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