大象传媒

There were 8 of us, 5 girls and 3 boys during the war. My dad was in the TA and was called up very early although he was also one of the first to be demobbed. Six of us children were evacuated and my two eldest sisters were too old. We were all sent to Sandbach in Cheshire, all in the same Cul de Sac to start with.
It was such a shock for my mother to suddenly be without her brood that she had a nervous breakdown. Me and my youngest sister who was the baby of the family went back home to help my mom feel better. We were away for twelve weeks in the peace and quiet so to come back to the air raids and bombing was very traumatic for us. It seemed to go on and on and I collected lots of shrapnel for my brothers.
There were no schools open so I went to work for about three months to the Swan Link factory; I was only 13 years old at the time. My two eldest sisters had joined up, one to the army and one to the air force.
At 14 I had a job in a grocery shop and my pockets were always deep and filled with something I could sell.

My brothers came home for a holiday and wanted to stay with my mom. I promised I would look after them as by then my mom was working so they stayed. What a big mistake that was!
I managed to survive them until I was 17 then I decided to join up and decided the air force was for me. I was there for three years.

Now I鈥檓 older I can鈥檛 believe what my mom had to go through! Before my dad was called up he worked on the trams so when he went my mom took his place when we were evacuated.

I remember we had 11 nights continuous raids. We used to down the cellar in the Florence Institute and someone had an accordion so we used to have parties! The chip shop never closed during the raids so we used to take orders and run out to get chips for everyone.

Then we moved house and had a shelter in the garden. One night a land mine dropped just behind our house so we had to be evacuated. We went to our Nan and auntie鈥檚 house. For some reason my auntie wouldn鈥檛 let us stay so my mom got some chips and took us back to our barricaded house my mom promised the wardens that she would take us all down the shelter and stay there until it was safe so they let us through.

Our family was never the same again after the war, everyone was scattered. Having said that we did have some good times, we had parties and went to dances and the blackout was very good for romance!

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Stella Bevan and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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