´óÏó´«Ã½

Love conquers all — even the War

A neighbour and close friend of my mother had a very attractive daughter, Eveline, who fell in love with an American soldier. Victor had come from Wisconsin to do preliminary training here before his regiment was sent overseas to the war front. They did not see each other for three years although both sent letters every week which because of war difficulties some times arrived in bundles of 4 or 6. No-one was allowed to give their whereabouts and letters to and from servicemen were rigorously censored. Even so the men managed to slip through hints or use pre-arranged codes and Eveline used to call at our house to look up my school atlas to check how near he might be to dangerous fighting.

At the end of the war troops were returned to their original bases and Eveline had word that Victor would be returning here to await a troopship home. Hundreds of them were shipped across from Stranraer to Larne and then packed into troop trains to be dispersed to army camps all over the North. Victor’s train had to stop at the signals at Bleach Green to wait for the Derry train on the loop-line which was running late. Even after 3 years he knew where he was and whether with permission from an officer or not, he jumped out and started running the 3 miles across the fields to Greenisland.

Eveline’s mother opened the door and nearly fainted but had to make a quick recovery as Victor wanted to get married immediately as this would give Eveline the right to go on the waiting list for free passages for war brides. That was Tuesday. They were married on Saturday, spent their honeymoon in the back bedroom and he left on Monday for the States with his regiment. It was 10 months before all the service men were repatriated so it was almost a year before Eveline and Victor were reunited.

Her mother was so anxious that the wedding would follow the conventions despite the short notice and wartime restrictions that she collected food and clothing coupons from family and friends who had any to spare. The photographs sent proudly to his family in Wisconsin showed a lovely bride in white veil and gown with an enormous bouquet and he handsome groom in his No 1 uniform. The end of the story is that they lived happily ever after on his family farm, had 4 children and celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1995.

Doreen Corcoran

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.