大象传媒

We were married in March 1940. My husband ended up as a Major. We lived on letters. He had leave only twice in five years.

I worked on a teleprint machine at an American base HQ at Wilton. There were two English girls, the rest were American. It was code work, blocks of five letters, very important although I didn鈥檛 know it at the time! It was in a Nissen hut. I was asthmatic and it nearly killed me. I had to leave and get an outdoor job so then I worked for the Church Army driving a mobile food canteen to RAF bases. I was out alone in the night.

One day when I got home father said there had been a telegram, and my husband had been wounded. He had been looking for a billet with his batman and the Jeep had got blown up. He was flown back to an army hospital in Staffs, and was on the critical list. I went up to see him by train on the 8th August. I had recently had an operation on my leg and was in some pain.

When I got to the hospital I found that he had lost both legs above the knees. I said 鈥楬ow are you?鈥� He said 鈥楳y legs are killing me鈥� I said 鈥楽o are mine鈥�. We both laughed and we knew then that we would be alright.

So that is my only memory of Armistice Day. We were married for 46 years. After the war he got the car converted and commuted to work. He died in January 1987.鈥�

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.