大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Coralie Selby on behalf of Mr B Bellingham. The story has been added to the site with his permission. And Mr B Bellingham fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

This is the story of a Plymouth woman and her daughter who were evacuated from Plymouth to the small fishing village of Stoke Gabriel on the river Dart. After a few week's living at Middle Well Farm, the mother Mrs Olive Pethick, decided to go back to Plymouth to get some more clothes and a few oddments. After arriving in her home town and making her way to the street where she had lived, thinking about having a cup of tea with a neighbour and what to take back. What she saw when turning the corner would live with her for the rest of her life. All the houses were flattened and the few people that were about she didn't know any of them. Olive burst into tears, then a policeman came over to ask if she was alright and told her to go home, through her tears she said, pointing at the rubble, that was my home. Olive returned to Stoke Gabriel and lived out the rest of her life there, living in a small cottage on the outskirts of the village. Olive was a grandmother when she told me her story, and I still remember seeing the tears running down her face as she described one of the worst days in her life.

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