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This story was submitted to the People's War site by the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Derby on behalf of Brenda Gardiner. The author understands the sites terms and conditions.

I was born in Colchester and joined the Waf's in 1943 as a volunteer, as did my sister. I passed the medical and was then sent to Gloucester for a week to get my uniform and other bits and bobs. I then went to Wilmslow for basic training and then posted to Swanton Morley in Norfolk for general duties. My job was to wait on the pilots when they came in after flights. They always had bacon and eggs! I remustered and went to a training station at Creedon Hill, Hereford to train to pack parachutes and dinghys. I was there for about 7-8 weeks. I met up with the Norfolk air crew in Hampshire and after 3 months we moved, because of the invasion scare, to Snaith in Yorkshire. it was nearly a year before I had any leave. I was still packing parachutes and making sure they worked properly. You had to take care of the quick release mechanism, taking ages over oiling it, as well as the Mae West jackets which inflated if a pilot landed in water.

I was sent to Scampton in Lincolnshire which was a peace time camp, which meant the buildings were closer together. that's where I met my husband. he was in the same section as me and we met whilst walking round and signing in. I then moved to Langer and onto a pace near Stratford but we kept in touch and were finally married in 1946. Before we'd met, my husband had been in India and his only brother had died working on the notorious railway in Singapore. We ended up with two twin sons and a daughter.

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