大象传媒

I lived in the village of Newchurch in Rossendale around 1941, and can remember the day that a single-decker bus arrived in the village square. The bus was full of children, who had been evacuated from Salford, and the headmistress of St Nicholas school in the village, Mrs Roberts, was also the Billeting Officer responsible for finding homes for all the evacuees.

The children poured off the bus, clutching their belongings and wearing their gas masks, and formed a semi-circle in the village square, and villagers came along to select evacuees to take home with them. As I recall, it seemed that all the pretty little girls were chosen first; then other children were lucky enough to be offered homes, until there was only one little boy left out of all the evacuees who had arrived. How dreadful he must have felt, having seen all of his companions chosen before him. The lad had "jam-jar bottom" glasses, and like many children was very poorly dressed - obviously, Salford was a poor area and had been heavily bombed, and the families there didn't have many of the nicer things in life.

After a while, one of the villagers - a man who had no children of his own - was on his way home for his dinner when he passed through and saw Mrs Roberts consoling the lad. He was obviously upset, and Mrs Roberts didn't quite know what to do with him. The man went past, towards his house, then turned back to ask what was wrong with the little fellow. Mrs Roberts explained that she couldn't get anyone to take the lad, and on hearing this the man instantly offered the lad a home. Without hesitation, he grabbed hold of the boy's hand, and led him off towards his new home.

I've often wondered what the man's wife would have had to say when her husband turned up with their new lodger in tow unexpectedly! What a shock for her - another mouth to feed - and from never having had children, she became an instant mother to the lad! Once he had settled in, the boy came to St Nicholas school, and he never went back to Salford - instead, he was adopted by the couple who had taken him in.

It was a happy outcome on both sides; the lad grew in to a really nice chap, and the couple gained a devoted son.

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