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On behalf of my Grandmother, i am writing this story. Like so many children, she was part of the extraordinary social experiment that was Evacuation. I cannot recall everything that nana went through, but the things that she have shared with me, id like to share with others, to keep their stories alive.
One of 15, Sheila was brought up in Grovepark, London. To say that she left a loving family behind when she moved out of London was untrue. But that still didn't ease the deep psychological effects of being uprooted at the age of eight and taken to a strange land you have never seen or experienced before. With two of her younger sisters left in her care, sheila was put onto the train with gasmasks and labels and headed for the countryside. First Sheila and her sisters were taken to Folkstone, Kent, until they were moved again in as little as three months to South Wales, Tredegar.
The sisters were separated when the family who took in Sheila's two younger sisters moved to Bournemouth. Sheila recalls the many different foster homes she was taken to. She also recalls the waiting in line to be chosen by the various foster parents, some ready and willing, others grudgingly doing their 'bit' for the war. 'Always last' she told me. Her experiences in these homes were good and some bad. It was her last foster home in Tredegar where Sheila felt more loved and welcomed into the family than she had ever done before. Yes they were strict, but she was also shown kindness and it gave her a real start in life, more so than her own parents ever gave.
Keeping very little contact with her natural parents, Sheila did return to London in 1946 and was one of the last to go back 'home'. Staying just three weeks with her parents, Sheila felt unhappy and unloved. With no care from her mother and an alcoholic father, Sheila and the same two younger sisters who had left London in 1940, left again but this time of their own accord. One morning they got up early and sneaked out of their London home. Buying all they could afford-a one penny platform ticket-they boarded a train and hid until they reached Bournemouth. This is where they stayed until Sheila's foster mother in Tredegar sent her money so she could come back to what was going to be her home for the next 60 years and still counting!
My nana's story is one that thankfully ended happily. She married in Tredegar and had two children, my mother and my uncle. Although she doesnt show it, i know my nana's experiences has deeply affected her, how could it not? Like lots of other evacuees, she still gets upset about the events that has shaped the person she is today. A remarkable lady.

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