大象传媒

It was September 1945 - my sister & I were out for a night in Tamworth & we met 2 soldiers - 1 American (ex POW - captured in Algieres and escaped) & 1 British. The next day the American appeared on our doorstep to see me, but I wasn't very fond of being followed around. We went out a few times - and it took him 3 days to ask me to marry him - then he had to return to Paris to join his unit. He came back from Paris and we were married (at St. Mary's, Atherstone)within 3 months - my mother and father were not thrilled at the idea of me marrying an American. A week later he had to return to the States, but then he left the service and joined the merchant marines so he could come back to England and smuggle me back to USA. The troop ship was called the Irving McDowell. I was the only woman on board a ship of soldiers. The journey took 11 days and for the first 2 days I was very sick on the ship. The Captain was great and let me use his shower. We came into Boston and they put me in the House of the Good Shephard for a couple of days where all the bad girls are because I was charged with being a stowaway. I'd had a passport and visa issued in London which wasn't valid in America - but they dropped the charges within a year. My husband had to forfeit his wages for smuggling me on the ship. The story caused a lot of interest and was in all the papers. I had to stay for 5 years to become an American citizen. I returned to England (with 2 sons) for 1 year and then went back to America and had 2 more children (twins) and then a daughter 10 years later. I came back to England every year to visit but my husband was not interested in coming back. I was married for 35 years before my husband was killed in a small plane crash - then I married his best friend.

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