大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Claire White of 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of Bessie Hassall and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Ted and I met in 1941 when I was 17 and he was 20. I was a cook in the Cairnbulg NAAFI and Ted was in the RAF. He walked into the canteen and I fell in love with him straight away. We courted for two years between Scotland and Walsall (Ted's home town) and we married on 9th October 1943 in Blackpool. We spent just one night together as a married couple before Ted caught a ship to the Middle East.

Two years later Ted was still overseas and I hadn't seen him since we married. I was out with friends one night and I had nooky with an older civilian and fell pregnant. My sister wrote to Ted and told him about my pregnancy. He was so upset that he divorced me and I didn't see him for the next 54 years.

We each went our separate ways and both re-married. When I was 66 I was visiting England and passed through Walsall which brought memories of Ted flooding back. Late one night I wrote a Christmas card to Ted's family asking if they knew of his whereabouts. The next thing I knew was a phone call and a voice asking "Is that you, Bess?" It was Ted and it was the first time we had spoken in 54 years.

We visited each other a couple of times in Scotland and in England and we discovered that the magic between us was still there. We re-married 4th April 1998 and have yet to consummate the marriage! But the past seven years together have been blissfully happy and I'm over-joyed to have my wartime love back.

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