The Evacuee

It was a long train journey from London to Roberta's new home. She was used to the busy streets of a city and living with the all too familiar night terrors of the bombing of London at war in 1942. Her sleep was often disturbed by the wailing of the air raid sirens, her mother rushing to gather rations and hurry along the streets with the rest of the locals to the closest underground train station which served as a huge shelter from the bombs.

Hundreds of people would squeeze in, settle down for the night with blankets, food, reading for the children, which in true British spirit everyone would join to share resources.

Today she was putting all the chaos & fear behind her to embrace a new unknown. Roberta was clutching her only doll, at the tender age of two she was being sent off along with thousands of other children in the cities of Britain to an uncertain future in the safer countryside’s & seaside towns.

Whole families were huddled together on the station platform, it was a cold damp day in early spring, a bleak time in London's history. Mothers and children clung to each other in tears as they really never knew when or if they would see each other again. It was different for Roberta, she was afraid yes, but she was even more fearful of her mother's vicious temper as she was of the unknown journey ahead. Even as young as she was she felt relief at the thought of no longer being a victim to her mother's continual emotional, verbal & physical abuse. There would be no more screams of pain as another cigarette was stubbed out on her arm or leg, always done where it could easily be hidden by her clothing.

Roberta was one of the more fortunate evacuees, she was given a home by a kind older couple who had recently lost their eldest son aged just 23 years in the war. His ship had gone down,all the crew were lost in a fatal torpedo attack. The couple’s hearts were broken & having Roberta helped to fill a huge hole in their devastated lives.

The new little family, including Denis their younger son soon settled into their new lives together. Roberta began referring to the couple as auntie & uncle. Her new family adored her & doted on her. Uncle was a draftsman at a local shipyard & gave Roberta her own pencil and drawing rule which she was very proud of & she loved sitting next to him in the evenings as they worked on their drawings together.

Although there was a war on the family ate well, buying local fish, enjoying kippers for breakfast and other meals with a little meat. Thick soups were made & even cakes and pies in the loam oven.

Most days if it was dry Roberta was put in an old pushchair (stroller) and taken on the long walk to the beach. It was so good to spend time by the sea, breathing in the salty air & witnessing the loud crashing of the waves along the shore, a whole new experience for Roberta and she loved every moment of her new life where she was cared for, well fed and loved.

On their way down to the beach a soldier from the territorial army would raise a curl of barbed wire so they could continue along the path where Roberta would climb out and help her auntie fill the pushchair with driftwood for the fire.

Auntie and her friends would spend hours knitting for Roberta and the troops, making gloves, balaclavas and socks for "The Front" it was a long time before Roberta had any understanding of what "The Front" really was.

Even in this haven from the bombings the war was still ever present in everyone’s minds. At night the nearby lighthouse also had to be blacked out for fear that the German planes would spot land and create a new bomb site. 

The other children in the village accepted Roberta even though she was the youngest and an outsider. One boy even lent her his tricycle on a regular basis. Every day he would pretend to be the general in training to fight Hitler. All the small boys around her would march up and down the road repeatedly. Roberta was afraid of these games until her auntie reassured her that England would win the war and that Hitler could not hurt her.

The adjoining house to where Roberta was living was taken over by the military. Sick soldiers would sit on the garden wall and wait to be seen or signed off to go back the “The Front”.

Thursday mornings auntie would meet with her friends to swap ration book coupons, the whole community really pulled together, no one went without.

The families younger son took Roberta under his wing, he and his dad made her a dolls house and toboggan, new toys were hard to come by, Roberta was so proud to be the owner of an old bicycle that her uncle found abandoned and fixed to make it safe for her to ride.

Auntie and uncle were old enough to be Roberta's grandparents. they truly loved her and wanted to keep her.  Unfortunately, this was not to be allowed as Roberta's mother could not possibly give up her daughter. Even though she didn't want her, she was an inconvenience, it would look bad to just give her only child.

As the war came to an end so did Roberta's new and happy life. She was devastated, hysterical at the thought of going back to her miserable life with her cruel mother. She had enjoyed a taste of a happy life only to have it snatched away from her.

Every year after the war, as young as she was, at the start of the summer, Roberta was back on the train station in London, waiting to be put on the train that would take her back to that other life where she was loved and wanted. All year she waited and longed for this time when she would board the train to freedom, to love & escape her life of abuse. Once there she relished her summers and was content being with her evacuee family by the sea. She called them her real family. Roberta decided that when she had her own home it would be by the sea.

Roberta continued to visit her aunt and uncle every summer until their eventual deaths. Years later she would make the same journey, to this small town by the sea, this time by car with her own family of two young sons and a daughter to stay in that same area where she had been so happy. Roberta passed on that legacy of finding happiness by the sea to her own daughter, who now also lives by the sea, as does Roberta, although they reside in different countries three thousand miles apart.

Roberta is now nearly eighty years old; her children are grown; she is tired and often unwell. She still remembers and talks with such love about her miracle family by the sea who showed her what love and a happy life could be.

It was a hard time during the war, too many families were torn apart. Some evacuees were like Roberta and were loved, some for different reasons never went home. Others tolerated it, worst of all were those who were ill-treated, constantly miserable and half starved. For Roberta being an evacuee was a turning point for good in her life, it really was a lottery and in this part of her life she won.