大象传媒

When war started I was five years old, my name was Ada Fairchild. We had just moved into a small at Forest Gate, London E7. the school was on the other side of the road so I didn鈥檛 have far to go. The first day at school we had games and I thought school was lovely, the next day we were in the hall and we had to sit on the floor and we had pictures on the wall, there were lambs playing in a field and cows being milked. I came home and told mum that the teacher said I could go and play in the grass with the lambs, mum said no. Next day at school the teacher asked us to put up your hand if your parents said yes for you to go and play in the country. I was the only one who didn鈥檛 put my hand up, I went home and told mum and I cried, she then said I could go.

About a week later the school closed and us children walked from Upton home to Forest Gate station, when the train came in the children had to get into the train and fill the seats plus 1 extra who had to sit on the floor, after two stations we had to give up a seat and sit on the floor ourselves. After a long while the train stopped and we was told to get out. A lot of ladies were standing on the platform, they looked in our hair, at our teeth and nails and then they said who they would take. The lady who took me was very large and she was a school teacher. I didn鈥檛 know what she was saying as she spoke Welch, we was in Wales and she took me home. When we got to the house she told me she had a dog and he didn鈥檛 like children and he would bite me.

When I sat on the floor to drink the milk she gave me the dog sat beside me he was my best friend for the next three and a half years.

My mum and dad didn鈥檛 come to see me and Aunty thought I was abandoned so the government got in touch with my parents and said they had to come and see me. I was living in Wales. My mum came first and her first words were if she had known how far away I was she wouldn鈥檛 have come.
I had my best frock on and I had to sit still, mum had a cup of tea and left.

After about a month I was picked up by my dad who I didn鈥檛 even recognized. I was brought back to Forest Gate E7. We were bombed out and Aunt Polly took us in, she lived in Rayleigh. I went to Love Lane School, then when the war ended we moved back to the East End Forest Gate. I met my husband when I was thirteen and a half, he was in the RAF. We got married when I was eighteen. We lived in the East End, but I wanted to come back to Rayleigh, so we have lived here for twenty-two years and have been married for fifty-three years.

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