大象传媒

Hi, Im Cathy, born 1935 in Woolwich South London. In 1941 or 1942 I had a very painful mystery illness & after several weeks was taken to The Southern Hospital, Dartford (which was pulled down years ago)then to Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton, Surrey where I spent seven years after being diagnosed with Stillls Desease.The last year of the war a bomb or doodlebug dropped on an empty ward, we were quickly evacuated in two diffrent directions, my ward going to Knnaresborough,Yorkshire. During that year I saw my parents once, they stayed with an Aunt who worked in a factory,visitors were not welcome in those days,so I saw them for two hours in that week.The war ended, we came back to Carshalton where I stayed until I came home in 1947.I have memorys, but very diffrent from my parents or my generation even,,Mum & Dad lived in the Blitz, Dad was an ARP Warden, he hated talking of the war & the things he saw & did, I was safe in the country. i knew a war was on, didn't mean much to me, we were fed,looked after, i saw my parents every Sunday, my Gran maybe twice a year. I was happpy despite the operations & pain I often had. Looking back, I feel guilty, I missed out, I have no one to share those memorys with although I do have storys to tell.Does any one have a similar situation, maybe you were in that hospital & we knew each other. It's a strange feeling, to live through an experience, but can't talk about it as you don't know any one who was there with you. I remember the train, full of stretchers, the pain In my legs, stopping at Harrogate, the Americans were based there, they helped load us into ambulances for our final destination.As i write i think of the trains full of Jews going to die, we were going to live though,but it was still a strange life thinking on it.If I had been well, I may have died in the Blitz,but I was ill, Iv'e been disabled all my life since those days,although Iv'e had a wonderful life, it's been like a fairy tale in some ways.I want to know others who lived in hospital as I did, I also want to know how i got into hospital when the NHS didn't exist. I remember a lot more, it's just diffrent so I hope some one reads this & comes back to me.