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My father was working at Brough as an aircraft designer from before the war. My family have always wondered if the factory at Brough was investigating chemical weapons or something like that, as both my eldest sister, born during the war, and another little girl in the village, died of Leukemia within a couple of months of each other. My sister died in my father's arms in hospital in Leeds. He had borrowed a car to drive across Yorkshire in the blackout with no lights on at all, and twice went into a ditch.
My parents were devastated by her death, and my father seemed to feel it was his fault.
Neither of them were very welcoming to evacuees who were subsequently billeted on them from nearby Hull. My mother, now 91, still speaks disparagingly of "evacuees".
My own post war childhood, and that of my other siblings, was overshadowed by this death.
The "Make do and mend" theme stayed too. Every drawer in my house was filled with bits of string or wool and paper bags neatly folded.
All the things we actually used and needed, had therefore to remain on permanent display. I am now a minimalist.

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