大象传媒

This story has been entered on to the site by Kristie on behalf of Lily Smith and she fully understands the conditions.

Lily Smith is a woman who can still remember a major part of her life nearly 70 years ago which took place during the Second World War in 1939. Lilly can picture to this day the experience, and feels that she will never forget the kindness and loving care that was given to her at a hard time in her life.

Lily became an evacuee at the age of just seven years old, it was no surprise to her that she would have to be evacuated and for her and fellow students at school, the teachers tried to get the children used to the idea by having several practices of walking down to the station ready to leave for the new adventure. The children knew that one day, it would not be a practice and that they would surely have to leave their parents for a while. For Lily and her four siblings; three sisters and one brother their mother had requested that her children should not be separated. When the time came to leave, Lily did not know that it was the real evacuation until they all arrived at the station, her mother had prepared clothes for them and it was finally time to go.

On the train, Lily and her brother and sisters were taken to Northumberland and stayed near Anwick in Rothbury. Once all of the children had arrived at the point where they would be collected by families who would take them in until the war was over or it was safe to go home, Lily and her sisters realised that it was very unlikely that the six of them would be able to stay together. Fortunately, a lady came expecting to take care of three children although when she saw that Lily鈥檚 family would be separated, she decided to take them all home with her as it would be unfair and more emotional for the children if they were split up and she did not want to make it more difficult for the children as they were already away from home. When they left the collection point and reached the house were they would be staying, they saw a large house which was situated on a far; it was so beautiful with pretty colourful gardens and gave a friendly mood to the new visitors. Lily鈥檚 feelings began to change from nervous to overwhelm as they strolled into the fresh welcoming home. The family whom they were staying with seemed friendly and kind, they also had to children of their own who had been evacuated.

During her stay with the family, Lily grew to know them well and adapted to the change in her life. She shared a room with her older sister Ethel; this was also a good advantage as it was easier to adjust as she felt safer with her family.

Lily鈥檚 fondest memory of staying at the farm was when she had to be there for Christmas. On Christmas eve Lily and her brother and sisters went out to play, they went on a walk and on the way back, Ethel saw a huge group of baby fern Christmas trees, Ethel decided that it would be a kind gesture to take one home to the farm and give it to the lady that as taking care of her, unfortunately, when they arrived home, the lady told Ethel that it was not the best thing to do as it was stealing and the owners would not be happy, So later, Ethel and Lily had to go and plant the tree again so that no-one would know. Lily said that she found it humorous story and that it was small stories like that that she remembers the most about her time there. Lily often thinks about the story at Christmas time and her pleasant experience on the farm makes her happy.

At times, Lily did miss her parents and became homesick like many other children although compared to some of the people who were evacuated, Lily was very lucky as she was privileged enough to be taken care of by a nice family.

Being in this new place for Lily was very different to her home town which was Heaton. She and the other children at all times had to carry around with them gas masks to be on the safe side of things. Also, the family became used to the knew rationing system, and Lily noticed in particular that they did not have bananas. Whilst on her stay, the farm house had a maid, who also helped to look after the five children. Lily would write letters to her parents to talk and tell them how she was and what she had been unto, also wandering how her parents were coping with war.

The school that most of the children in the village went to was ran by Mrs Proudlock, the main teacher as all of the children would be taught together in one room. Fortunately, Lily was not concerned about this as she didn鈥檛 find the work too hard.

After school on a Friday night, the Bread van would arrive near the farm, each week on the Friday morning; there would be an inspection of the children鈥檚 rooms to make sure that they were tidy. If they were tidy, which they were almost every time, the children would receive a penny that seemed like a lot of money at the time, so all of the children would wait until the bread van came so that they could buy something nice. Lily remembers this especially because it was in her routine and she enjoyed being with the people in the village.

When it was finally time to return to home after six weeks, Lily found it exciting to be going to see her mother as she missed her terribly although she was sad to be leaving. When they arrived at home, Lily and not realised that her mother was pregnant before she left, but when she walked in the door gasping for breathe because of the excitement of seeing her mother, she could smell fresh bread and food that had been prepared and a traditional Sunday dinner to welcome them home. Then she saw a small card board box in the room, she walked over to it and saw a tiny baby inside, her mother had another daughter to come home to. This was a major surprise and made her arrival even more special.

Later in 1981, Lily received a phone call from one of the daughters who had lived with her during the evacuation, sadly her mother who had taken care of lily had died but her daughter came into contact with her and they had several visits. Lily thought that it was quite nice to have met up with her again and they remembered the past together and some of the things they did at the time when lily stayed with her. The daughter had found Lily鈥檚 telephone number as she had previously visited a church in the village in the farm and the daughter saw that she had signed it and decided to get in touch with her. After a while, they lost touch but recently, Lily visited the farm and saw that it was up for sale, the gardener kindly gave her the keys to have a look inside and Lily enjoyed seeing it and saw many changes and it brought memories back from the past.

Thankfully for Lily, her experience in Northumberland was happy and peasant and something to remember for life.

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