大象传媒

My brother and I had been evacuated from SE London to Dorking in Surrey. Our kind hosts had invited my mother to join us to escape the stress at the height of the London bombing. My father, a pharmaceutical chemist continued to work in his shop and sweep up the shattered glass on the pavement outside his windows every morning. His only peaceful nights were when he joined us in Dorking on Thursdays [half-day closing in Lewisham] and at the weekends.
One weekday evening, rather late, my mother answered a knock at the door and was astonished to find my father had arrived unexpectedly. He explained that a customer, who also had a daughter from my school evacuated to Dorking, had offered him an unused half-return ticket to come down to us for the night. Tempted by the promise of a night's sleep, my father accepted gratefully.
Next morning, when he returned to work, his shop and all the surrounding area had been flattened by a land-mine. His customers were digging in the rubble to find him. It was well known that he never went away except on Thursdays and at weekends. It was a miracle that he was alive.
My father had survived WW1 on the Somme and now escaped a direct hit in WW2. I'm happy to say he lived well into his eighties.

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