大象传媒

I was 4 years old in the Sheffield blitz. Just before Christmas 1940,my nursery school was bombed.I had taken my Christmas tree to school with all the decorations and fairy lights and I lost the lot and had to go through the war without a tree! That was Friday night; Sunday night my mother, determined to do her Monday wash, filled the tin bath with water in case the water was cut off again. The sirens went again on Sunday night and our street was bombed but our house only suffered blast with no roof or windows but I remember my mother being furious because the bath was full of soot and the water useless. We had to go and live with an aunt and uncle until our house was repaired but what amazed me was that Father Christmas knew exactly where to deliver my presents and I was not disappointed.My father was killed in 1943, not in the war but in the pit. He was not a Bevin boy but had worked in the pit since his 14th. birthday; he was only 34yrs old. So on VE/J days we could not celebrate in the same way as those who were waiting for family to come home.I was now the only girl at my school without a Dad.

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