大象传媒

It was a fine Friday afternoon in Liverpool. The date was May 1940. I lived in the heart of the city and on that beautiful afternoon my mam sent me to the fish and chip shop for our tea. We always had fish and chips on a Friday. The 'chippy' was at the bottom of our road.

Just as I was being served the air raid siren went off and everyone in the shop literally disappeared only to reappear in the nearest air raid shelter. Even at my tender age of seven I knew that a siren meant danger and my little legs could not run fast enough.

When the all clear was sounded we surfaced only to find that our beloved 'chippy' had been bombed to the ground. A fireman who knew my mother through the A.F.S. (Auxiliary Fire Service) happened to be on duty that day. He immediately recognised me and came to my rescue. I was lifted onto his shoulders and carried all the way home. I cried all the way.

Meanwhile, the whole family were out looking for me and much later when they discovered that I was still alive were overjoyed. We were laughing and crying at the same time and the funny thing was I was still hanging on 'for dear life' to the now very cold fish and chips. They sat forlornly in the old wicker basket,in which we collected our Friday afternoon tea. I shall never forget that Friday afternoon until my dying day.

Fran Brothers (nee Rush)
Liverpool 2005

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