大象传媒

It was in 1944, when I was 6 years old, that I had a very bad attack of mumps - so bad that it was all I could do to eat was to use a very small egg spoon! Because of my illness I was allowed to share my mother's bed as my father was an Air Raid Warden and was on duty this particular night. We woke up hearing a Doodle Bug approaching and as usual waited in trepidation for the engine to continue to run and take the threat away from our home, but this one stopped while it was obviously very near and the next few seconds was awful and I remember my mother getting very scared although trying to be brave and not pass her fear onto me, so we both ducked under the blankets. The next minute there was this terrific explosion and the house shook, but we had been spared. We looked out of the window and saw the sky lit up with flames somewhere along the road we thought. Eventually my father came in and told us that it had landed on Moreland Avenue, less than a quarter of a mile away, which was where my mothers sister lived, they where OK but I think that four other people had been killed. My uncle was being taken to hospital because he had been standing at the front door looking out when it landed and was blown right down the hall and into the kitchen breaking his elbow badly but my aunt was safe. When my mother told Dad how we had hidden under the blankets he wasn't all pleased and told us that a lady tonight had done the same thing and in the explosion the water storage tank in the loft had fallen through the ceiling and onto her bed with other debris and trapped her under her bed clothes and she had suffocated before they could get up to her room and help to release her. So we were forbidden to ever do such a thing if it ever occurred again. My uncle recovered from his broken elbow but his arm was locked into a crook position for the rest of his life. And I recall that for a few minutes I had forgotten all about the Mumps!