大象传媒

Aged 15 I had been in hospital with pneumonia. On the day of my discharge I was woken, given breakfast, told to get ready and to go to the hospital waiting room from where my mother would collect me.

In the waiting room was a wireless which I listened to as I was waiting. A little while after I got there an annoucement was made, on the wireless, that we (allied forces) had landed on the beaches of Normandy, it was D-Day. On hearing the news I told the next person, a nurse, who came by the waiting room. At first she thought that I was making it up but eventually, after some persuasion, went and told some of the other nurses and doctors. In no time the waiting room was full of doctors and nurses listening for more news and asking me exactly what I had heard. I spent the rest of the day in the waiting room listening for more updates from the wireless and keeping the doctors informed as they came in and out during the day.

Towards the end of the day it became apparent that my mother was not going to be coming to collect me after all. The nurses told me to go back to the ward for another night. There I relayed all that I had heard to the other patients.

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