91热爆

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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Phil Sealey of the Somerset County Museum Team on behalf of Mrs Jan Knight and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

鈥淥ne afternoon while my mother was gardening at Ravenshaw, Holway Road, Taunton, the Evacuation Officer came to the door asking could she have a mother and baby who no one else would take in. The couple were actually two sisters, Violet was sixteen the eldest of ten children and Grace just two. Their surname was Rolph and they came from the Elephant and Castle area of London. My parents took them in and loved and cared for them. One memory my 91 year old mother recounts is the treatment of head lice, which the girls had, given her by Mrs Coombe from the Post Office in Holway Road. She was told to soak the girls鈥� hair in paraffin, she then tied her brand new wedding present dusters around their heads, went for a walk on the hills and finally washed out the 鈥榗reatures鈥� with vinegar water! The next two weeks involved everyone combing each other鈥檚 heads! Also when the blackout blinds were being painted with black paint and Grace was sitting watching and scratching her head the lice fell onto the newly painted blinds! Grace also refused to eat fish and chips unless she was allowed to sit on the step of the back door and eat it out of newspaper as she had done at home. Violet went back to London in 1940 but Grace only went back to visit her parents in June 1942 just before I was born. Unfortunately much to my parent鈥檚 distress her parents never allowed her to return and they always wondered what [had] happened to her as they had grown to love her so much.鈥�

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