大象传媒

When I was four and a half, my mother had to go into hospital because of a miscarriage so I was sent to stay with my aunt, uncle and two cousins. Their cottage was in the middle of woods and fields. There was a dugout shelter in the garden but because they lived out in the country, they never bothered to go in it. But because I was there, my aunt actually went into the shelter one day when the alarm went. One of my cousins thought it was the call for her lunch so she went and sat at the table. The dog jumped in as well when she was being brought back in, and just then there was this tremendous bang. Everything shook and we were covered in earth.

Eventually the local vllage fire people turned up and they lifted us out. My hair was standing on end as a result of the blast and it looked as if I was a golliwog. They said you could have planted potatoes in my ears, they were so full of earth! My father came cycling up and he thought I was dead because he knew my aunt never went into the shelter. He thought he was going to have to go and tell my mother that her other child was dead as well. I remember very clearly that he lifted me out of the fireman's arms, put his head down on my shirt and just cried.

One thing that has always stuck in my mnd is a fireman carrying out of the house a dead goldfish although I don't know why he did this or what he did with it. The blast had lifted up the wall of the house, and my red blazer was stuck in the wall. The wall came back down with my blazer still stuck in it. So, as blazers were in short supply, we cut it out! The main blast had hit an oak tree and had taken it right out. The whole side of the house was down but the shelter was undamaged. After that, my aunt and her family and I had to go and live in the village until they came and stayed with us.

I remember all this very clearly but my cousins, who were a little younger than I was, have no memory of it at all.

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