Second Helpings

War Torn

It can never be an easy task to clear the house and possessions of people we have loved. It was always something I dreaded doing, but knew one day in the natural scheme of things it would happen. As is often the case, it didn't happen as I'd imagined.

After the fire last year at my Dad's house, the lower level of the house was badly smoke damaged and had to be completely cleared before the insurance company could start restoration work. It was not possible to rescue much, so the majority of furniture, fittings and fixtures, personal and ornamental items were disposed of by them before we put the house on the market.

That left the upper level for my sister and I to sort out before the new owners moved in. We had to be quite ruthless but did decide on putting some pottery, jewellery, photograph albums and paper items on one side to sort through later before we decided their fate. All in all quite a painful process.

The saved items have been stored in our garage since then, but over the last few weeks I've been sorting out and disposing of a lot of my own stuff as well as reorganising and downsizing scrapbooks and such. It occurred to me there might well be some things in the boxes from my parent's house which might well be included in them, so I decided to sift through some of it.

We all know it's a common complaint that we don't ask or discuss things we should know about until it's too late. I'm as guilty as the next person. Of course I was aware of the bare bones of my parents meeting during the war when my Dad was stationed over here with the US airforce. Of course I'd heard many a tale from that era and seen photos and memorabilia as well as trying to piece together the family tree on the other side of the pond.

But time and circumstances make it impossible to keep up with everything and these last few long years of caring and dealing with heartbreaking issues meant leaving the distant past behind and focussing on day to day survival. I pray daily to have the bad memories and recollection of traumas taken from me, for I know there are happier memories to be treasured somewhere behind the fog.

I'll admit I'm not a fan of warfare and am a pacifist and idealist at heart. The battles, invasions and brutal campaigns of this world are things I don't understand and I'll admit my interest in World Wars has never been very strong. My Mum talked a lot about the war, complained about how terrible it was to live through, though I silently suspected that as a teenager she had a pretty good time in some ways. It is only recently I've started to appreciate the impact of living through those times.

My Dad on the other hand rarely spoke of his war years. We knew he was based somewhere near Bedford and was an aircraft instrument fitter, but beyond that our knowledge was scanty. We concluded he was one of those who chose not to talk about it and sadly we did not ask enough questions.

Back to the sorting. I discovered quite a lot of war documents, certificates, leaflets and papers amongst my Dad's things. I purposely made up my mind to read through them, make notes and do some research. One leaflet described a book written about the army base at Kimbolton in England where my Dad was based.

Enter Google, God bless her. Talk about a minefield. It has led me to many websites and contact with a US Facebook member who not only advised me where to purchase the original book, but has invited me to join his group related to the war base and provided links to all sorts of sites that are available for research purposes.

I now have a deep desire to piece together the lives of my parents during those war years and with the capabilities of the new iMac to possibly produce an illustrated book of their story, which I believe is rather unusual and worth recording for posterity. Maybe the novel I always intended to write was not meant to be after all. I never imagined becoming an historian or recording events from the war, but something is telling me this is the direction I need to go for whatever reason. I just hope to find the time and inspiration. I'd like to think it's coming from a higher level and my parents will guide me somehow. Or maybe that's just the wine talking.