大象传媒

This story was submitted by Tommy Ryan at the Living Museum. The contributor agreed to the terms and conditions apertaining to publication.

We used to go down to the cellar in our house but because the bombing was getting so bad, my Dad insisted that we all go over to the shelter in Haydans Road Recreation Park. Mum put some blankets and stuff in the pram with Sylvie in it and headed off. Dad had a box on wheels fitted to the back of his bike and in this he put my two sisters,Ivy and Mary,placing them upon some more blankets. Bearing in mind the blackout, my Dad could not see too well and took the corner too quickly and crashed. The box behind twisted around and my sisters were thrown out but quite by chance, they landed on the blankets which cushioned their fall and saved their skulls from being crushed. I was only eight at the time but I can remember the bombs dropping all around and the houses being smashed and falling down and my Mum saying to us,' Whatever you do, keep on going.' And so I did. But when I got to the shelter I could not find my parents and I kept shouting,' Where's my Mummy and Daddy?' Then my Mum came down the slope to the shelter, pram and all and then Dad turned up and we were all happy. Mum said afterwards, 'That's it then- you're going to be evacuated.'And so we were packed off to Keighley in Yorkshire where we stayed with a woman called Florrie. She had a daughter Mary who is now eighty but I still keep in contact with her. Once there, we got lost on the moors and found this old house, so we went in and all round the walls were guns, so we thought that this chap, who turned out to be the farmer, was a German spy! Anyway, he put us at ease and took us back to where we were staying. When the war was over, we couldn't go back with the other kids as Mum was having another baby and so they all waved to us as the train took off. We got back home later in July. Mum's baby was Joan and she used to say,'Don't touch her, she's too fragile.' Joan is dead now, she died of cancer eight years ago.

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