大象传媒

This story has been added to the People鈥檚 War website by Micheline Stevens on behalf of Olwyn Jenkins. Olwyn has given her permission and understands the sites terms and conditions.

'Dad was in the army. There were five of us and I was the youngest, born 7/9/1939. We had a Red Cross parcel at Christmas time and my present was a rag doll with yellow woolly plaits. She was called Jane. My mum and another lady were the only ones in the village (Great Longstone near Bakewell in Derbyshire) to find out where the parcels came from and write a letter of thanks. Our parcel came from Toronto from a Mrs Ryan and she visited us in about 1948 and during the war she sent mum a pair of gloves but because you weren't allowed to send new bought things she sent one glove in one parcel and one in another. We kept in touch until she [Mrs Ryan] died in about 1954. All us children wrote to her and my last present from her was an organdie dress with holly hocks embroidered up the front. One sleeve was taken out so it didn't look new and mum had to stitch it back in again.

Because I remember how pleased we were, I do the shoe boxes at Christmas for children overseas, a lasting legacy.'

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