Sunday 10 May 2015

VE Day remembered.

The seventieth anniversary of VE Day is today....it is being commemorated all over these islands quite rightly...it signalled the end of five years of war.

I do remember it...I was seven.

I had been sent home from my grandparents house to live with my mum and baby brother. We had a two up and two down terraced house with a shared outside toilet up a long dark corridor.

Me and my brother had had measles followed by rheumatic fever. We were quite poorly in the days before antibiotics and of course there was no NHS.

I remember the doctor telling my mum that I needed to go away. Hope rose that I might be going home to my grandparents but it turned out to a convalescent home in St Anne's .

I was told I was going to the seaside to get better. And that's where I was on VE Day. I have no memory of the transport arrangements but I do remember the sense of isolation, of being cut off from everyone I knew at a time when I just felt ill.

Looking back I have no idea how this home was funded...a charitable institution I suppose. I was there for about a month but still very weak...too weak to join in any of the parties, the singing and the dancing going on around me.

I was given a book to take home to commorate the day and I now suspect that this gift is the reason I remember the day. They explained that VE stood for Victory in Europe.

The news that my dad would be returning from the army failed to give me any sense of relief ...but I witnessed the massive joy of the staff and the older children.

Remembering those who never got home is important today and I hope all the celebrations with the veterans go well.........it was indeed a landmark day for us all!

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