The Runaway Brother

I was evacuated from London to Suffolk but was separated from my parents. I was 6 years old. It was quite late in the war because Mum didn’t want to let us go. It was awful really leaving my Mum, but I had my elder brother with me so it wasn’t so bad.

It was very pretty, though. I’d never thought about flowers growing by the side of the road. I used to stop and pick them on the way to school and be late!

The first home we stayed was lovely, but then the man died, so we were put with his sister who already had 2 evacuees and 4 children of her own. Two of her children had to stay with their grannies.

We were always fighting — at home and at school. My brother ran away twice but they soon hiked him back. He took a couple of apples and went. The man where we lived was a lorry driver and he used to take us out towards Claydon, so (my brother) got to know a bit of the area and had an idea where to go. One time he was out overnight and slept in a shed but a farmer found him the next day.

We wrote to Mum regularly and they visited us a couple of times a year. After the war, we settled back in London all right. We were just so pleased to get back home.

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