大象传媒

This is the room we're sitting in,right next to where the bomb fell in front of the garage.My mother and the dog,Bruce were in the room at the time,my father was fire watching down at the mill where he worked.Usually we went down the celler,it was shored up - I slept down there for 2 years without a break.
I'd gone to bed,I was 12 at the time,but we'de got so blase by this time that we didn't always go down when the air raid siren went off.It made a horrible noise,I heard the bombs falling /landing and at first we thought the house had just been picked up and shaken.
All the windows were blown out,mother thought she was alright,so she quickley called to my sister and me upstairs to come down.The dog was scrambling around the room on his stomach,he didn't know what to do. Further along Park Road was the home of my grandparents and 2 aunts and an uncle -all unmarried,so my mother decided we should go down the road to see if they were allright and for us to stay there,for 2 weeks as it turned out.Across the street there was a house where soldiers had an office.They came over and helped us to get over the huge creater in our front drive.I remember that I couldn't stop screaming,my sister who was 2 years older than me wasn't frighted at all - she didn't want to go down the cellar,she was amazing.She was a teenager and a bit 'anti' you know how they are,but we were devoted sisters.(she died of cancer in 1955,leaving 4 angels who are ever so good at coming to see me and doing my paperwork now I can't cope with it.
We didn't pack up anything,I think I was still in my nightdress,we wanted to get out urgently for fear of the house would fall down.The garage took a lot of the blast though,three rooms of the house were blown away and they wern't built up again. My sister had been sleeping in one of the rooms the night before,with a friend that was visiting. This house was built for us,it was built in 1933.
There was a young maid living with us and she went down the road with us to my grandparents.She kept saying 'oh I've lost my shoe' I guess she was in a panic too.We only stayed there for 2 weeks,then we moved back to our house.Another air raid warden went to fetch my father and tell him that his wife and children were all right,but the house had been hit.We all stayed in the cellar there for the rest of the night,I couldn't sleep a wink,my uncle snored but also I was probably in shock.I was off school one day and I slept then.
It was the 4th of May 1941.I was fearful for the rest of the war untill peace.
My dog used to wimper when he saw that I was upset.

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