大象传媒

In 1939 we moved to Edgware into a new block of houses they were just building, I was pregnant at the time, my late husband brought me a pair of slippers, I slipped down the stairs, the baby was well, we did not go downstairs when one day a bomb came through the window so we decided to move to a place called Letchworth Garden City, we had a very nice flat unfortunately my husband had to go into the army. One day my husband came home on leave, he was terrified by then the doodlebugs had come, it cut out as were were coming over the green. My husband had to go back into the army and I did not want him to go abroad and he also suffered with his stomach. He was in Wales for the last few weeks of training and they had nothing to eat all day. So I saved up all my coupons, I brought him a tin of spam and all the things he could eat because of his stomach. I told him to eat the lot and he was very ill and hence he did not get drafted. It was good we moved because six bombs gave a direct hit two doors from our house. It was a miracle nobody got killed.

I came over from Austria, I wanted to listen to the English language, my late husband knocked me down, that was how we met. The war broke out and I was safe but I lost a lot of people on the continent. I was then just 21 and my late mother used to say you are only a child but you are old enough to make your own mind up so I did not get back until after the war. I managed to get her over in 1939 and she returned in 1975. I remember the Spitfires going overhead at Edgware and seeing the dogfights.

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