大象传媒

We (my husband and I) were married on the 22nd December 1940 in London. My mother put on a spread and when it was time for us to leave, and she gave us two wooden chairs. We walked home through an air raid with the chair seats over our heads, and after we arrived home there was a knock on the door. It was the air raid warden to say we had a light showing through the Blackout. We went on to enjoy almost 60 years.

I was expecting our first baby when my husband was called up into the Army, so I went home to Mum and Dad.

After I had the baby, Frances, (she is 63 this year) I stayed with Mum. One morning in the early hours the bombers came and Mum and Dad lost their home but luckily we were all in the shelter. Our little dog Judy suffered from shock and died the next day. So home I went, my parents having to live in a shelter before they were re-housed.

My husband was away for three years. He was in the invasion of Sicily and Italy and towards the end of the war spent six months in Venice. When he arrived at home our Francis told my neighbour 鈥淭here is a man in my house鈥�. Frances eventually plucked up the courage to come indoors and she told him 鈥淚 got a dolly鈥�. She soon came to accept him as her Daddy. We then had another daughter, she was born in 鈥�48 and we named her Kate.

I decided it was time to evacuate so I travelled on the train nursing my baby all night to Exmouth. It was early morning when we arrived. The lady I stayed with wouldn鈥檛 have any talk of the bombing and we had to stay out all day, with a baby in a pushchair and a job, and at the same time trying to find anywhere suitable to eat! We were also not able to get on the beach as it was all wound up with defences. I was pretty miserable. So I came home to face the V two鈥檚.

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