大象传媒

Mother was on duty whenever air raid sirens sounded. She had to make her way to the Anlaby Road Hospital where her team was based.

Duties included, mostly helping nurses to attend to minor wounds of air raid victims - ie, one young girl had most of her fingers shattered and it was obvious that some would have to be amputated and mother had to comfort and reassure here that everything would be alright.

Another young girl had dinky metal hair curlers in her hair which she hadn't removed when the sirens sounded. Unfortunately she was caught in the blast from a bomb and this drove the curlers into her scalp. it was mother's job to try and remove these and ever after that, as she had four daughters, we were always made to remove our hair curlers whenever the sirens sounded.

Mother was tireless in her voluntary work and had a part time job at what used to be the Needlers box factory, making tins for army provisions etc. Also she had a large 3 bedroomed bouse down Sandringham Street for her and her husband who was a train driver for LNER - and her family of five children. She was an expert at make do and mend and we had clothes made from all sorts of household items - one of them being a dress for myself made out of black out material with white piping round the neck. It was beautiful.

She baked all her own bread and cakes whenever we had enough rations and we always had a christmas cake and pudding made from saving up extra provisions for months.

After the war she became an officer in St Johns and taught cadets at a big house on Anlaby Road for several years.

She died 26-07-1977 and was a really wonderful mother. One of her main legacies was to show us all that hard work never hurt anybody as she was never afraid to tackle anything.

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