大象传媒

Its now 1941 and about to take place is the first meeting of my now wife Joyce.
I was then 4 and a half years old and she was two and a half years old, I remember all the people standing around and waiting for something to happen.
Soon to find out that they were waiting for the buses to arrive onour village green at Garden City, Langport, Somerset, to drop off all the evacuees from London.
My Dad went to the green to find a child to look after at our home. He found Joyce, two and a half years old, he saw she was crying for her loder sister. He found her and brought them both home. Her sisters name is Maureen, aged four and a half.
I remember how they were not treated or accepted very well by most people and how they had to stand and be dusted down with D.D.T powder to rid them of so called lice.
How humiliating for them.
We all survived the rationing and war and all the rest that went along with it including the daily dose of cod liver oil and malt at school, the planes overhead going to bomb Bristol, London etc, and seeing the v2 rockets passing over our homes on the way to London.
It all seemed to go on for so long but finally the war was over. Joyce and her sister Maureen returned home to Mitcham in London in 1947 only to find that her mother had died in 1942 unknown to her or her sister and her father had remarried againsomewhere around 1945/46
They arrived home to a stepmother and two step brothers and two half brothers, as well as her own blood brothers and sisters Grace, Joan, Maureen and Dickie Boy all older than her.
All have since died but we have since found out in recent years that her mum gave birth to a baby boy on May 16th 1942 named William George Lay. She died in August 1942 and he was given up for adoption at three months old before she died.

Fast forward to 1955.

Joyce and Maureen contacted no 33 Garden City, Langport, Somerset, to see if our family was still there and came down to see us for a short holiday.
I went into the Army to do my National Service in 1956-1958 in the Somerset Light Infantry during this time Joyce and I started writing letters to each other.
We courted and got engaged to be married in August 1957 and married on 2nd August 1958.
We have been married now for 47 years this coming August 2nd 2005.
Joyce is still searching for her long lost brother William George Lay but to no avail.
He was born at 26 Fountain Road, Mitcham, Surrey on the 16th May 1942
So 1941 saw the start of our now 47 years together with hopefully more to come.
THANK YOU HITLER!!!!

G.M.W. Suter and wife Joyce.

P.S.

I have heard it said on Tv that no children under the age of four were evacuated without an adult or parent.
This is completely false as even before 1941 they had both been evacuated to Rygate and taken in by seperate families so Joyce must have been 1 and a half to 2 years old.
No one had any counselling in those days for all they went through.

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