大象传媒

At this time we didn鈥檛 have air raid shelters. I was living with my parents Margaret and Daniel Whelan and brothers Danny and Patrick at 21 Akenside Street. So when the sirens started at 6 or 6.30pm we all went next door.
Our neighbours were the Flanagans He was very tall and his wife was tiny like a Dresden doll. They also had a lodger who I think was called Mick, he was in bed.
Then we all started to hear the dreary drone of the planes coming over and next a horrible bang and everything seemed to shudder. We heard Mick shouting "help me "Mr Flanagan rushed upstairs and found Mick underneath the wardrobe which had fallen on top of him. Between them they managed to move it and joined us downstairs. WE all decided to have some tea to ease our fright.
Most of the men helped the ARP and later that evening my Dad appeared with a little girl. She looked about 2 years old and had fair hair and wore a blue coat. He handed her to me and told me to cuddle her to keep her warm. I looked at her face and saw a tiny cinder on her eyelid, which I was unable to remove. She died in my arms. Later on we discovered the family had been to see Santa at the grotto, and that her mother and 2 siblings were killed outright. But her Dad home on leave survived, although injured and eventually went back to his post.

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