91热爆

Edna鈥檚 story

In December 1940, I was working in an LCC Residential School in Essex. There had been a lot of unexploded bombs dropped across the grounds, but naturally enough no damage or casualties. My family home was in the village of Minster on the Isle of Sheppey and we lived in the last house in Sea Thorpe Avenue with cliffs and the sea at the end of the road. We could see Southend across the Thames Estuary.

About 9 am on the 12th December, I was told to go home as there had been some bomb damage in Minster. Although the school had been told the whole story, that my father had been killed and my mother injured, they wanted to spare me the worry on my three-hour journey home.

I arrived home and as I approached my road, a neighbour told me that my mother was in hospital, so there I went. I found out from a nurse that my mother had been badly injured but that my father was dead. I had to keep strong for my mother鈥檚 sake and I had to sit and wait for my sister and her husband to turn up. Apparently, a previous bomb had already damaged the house and when my father heard a noise and went to investigate, thinking that more of the roof had collapsed. What he heard however was a seamine meant for the boom defences at the mouth of the Thames. Instead it landed on our house and sadly he was killed.

After Christmas, my mother was able to leave hospital and we went to live with my sister at Heston. I did not return to the school and found work as a nursery nurse with a family who had three children.

On a happier note, our family鈥檚 canary was found in a neighbour鈥檚 garden and lived for many years, but he never sang again.

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