大象传媒

This story has been transcribed and published by Mark Jeffers, with permission from the author.

I lived in Belfast all my life. I had my own grocery business and I supplied groceries to the boats which came into Belfast docks. The shop was on York Street, beside the docks, and I gave all the boat people their supplies, such as vegetables, butter and other groceries.

At one time I had seven girls working for me.

I live in Bryson Street and when the Belfast Blitz happened a house was brought down in Rosemount Gardens, very near to my house. We went into shelters when the Blitz happened. I had two girls and three boys. We always felt very uneasy all the time in case another blitz happened unexpectedly.

I got my supplies from a wholesaler on Queen鈥檚 Bridge. I could only sell to sea people; those going on long journeys to places far away. A lot of black marketing went on but I had no part in that.

Normal citizens tried to pressurise me into supplying them with goods. I had to be very careful because I couldn鈥檛 give them anything. It was very hard even for me to get some things. Tinned fruit was very hard to get but I got it for the seamen.

I used to be a typist so I had my own typewriter and so I typed up all my invoices. I met many foreign people, all of which were very pleasant and helpful. I had a very important job and it was really interesting.

I used to work for the corporation as secretary to the manager in the gas office. The girls I had employed in the shop looked after it while I worked for the corporation. My husband also helped out in the shop.

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