a raid that evening. In the front room Julia had the wireless turned down low and Vera Lynn was crooning out ‘Yours’ and filling the darkness. In the kitchen she turned on the low light that was permitted and Julia made them both a cup of cocoa. A rare treat, and a gift from her supervisor, as they huddled around the table to continue their conversation.
‘I know I have to take her to the authorities tomorrow and hopefully, they’ll find her parents,’ Lizzie surmised reluctantly.
‘Such a strange time we’re living in,’ reflected Julia, shaking her head, as she took a sip of her drink. ‘Everybody I know has sent away their children and so many have even had their animals put down. And now children are turning up alone. With this relentless bombing, night after night… so many beautiful buildings destroyed, so many people lost.’
Lizzie sighed. ‘I have this terrible feeling that her parents may have been killed that night in the bombing. All the buildings on the street where I found her were flattened, Julia; there wasn’t a house standing. I don’t even know how she made it out unscathed. She barely had a mark on her, and she couldn’t have walked that far in her bare feet. I just keep thinking how hard all this must be for her and I don’t want her to go through any more heartache.’
Deep in thought, Julia drew in a long slow breath.
‘I had a letter from Tom this morning,’ she shared in a halting voice. Going into her kitchen drawer, she pulled it out and placed it on the table for Lizzie to read. Lizzie unfolded the wrinkled blue paper.
Written in big looped writing with the ‘Y’ back to front were the words ‘Dear Mummy.’
It continued, ‘We are all right, and Auntie Rosalyn is very good to us, but, Mummy, I miss you very very much.’ And then he’d drawn a sad face with a tear on it.
Lizzie put a hand to her chest. ‘Oh, Julia.’
Her friend shook her head despondently. ‘He feels everything. Tom worries about everybody. And I hoped he’d settled by now, but I can tell he’s really pining for home. But I can’t bring them back to this, can I, Lizzie? I hope I did the right thing, sending them away. Every single night when the bombs drop, I thank God they’re somewhere where they’re safe. But it is so hard. I miss them so much, I just didn’t think it would be like this.’ Julia welled up with the brimming emotion inside her.
Lizzie reached out and took her friend’s hand. ‘Of course you did the right thing, and none of us could have prepared for what this was going to feel like. How could we know what it was going to be like to have bombs drop out of the sky every day? When I left Scotland, I was naive. I wanted to do something for our country, for the soldiers away fighting. I knew there was a chance Hitler might invade here but up till then the danger all sounded so remote and far-off across the sea in Europe. Never in a million years did I expect to have bombs dropping on London night after night like this. Only being able to sleep for a few hours at a time in our beds or cramped in a shelter. Watching a city turn into rubble and hearing the roll call every day of all the people who have died. But what it has shown me is that strength is built by doing; it’s not something you’re born with, strong is what you become by getting up after being knocked down day after day. Even for your children; they are becoming strong in their own way, too.’
Julia nodded, wiping a tear from her cheek. ‘I hope you’re correct, because there don’t seem to be any right choices. Everything has its costs. If I brought Tom back here, I would worry about him every single day. But if I leave him there, I’m worried he’ll continue to pine for home. I have to do what feels right to me, and what feels right to me is him being safe in the country. And I just hope this war doesn’t take too long and break his heart.
‘I keep hoping that in a year or so, we could be in a whole new situation. We’ll have defeated this awful enemy, and they can start their lives again, and this will