B A No 21
Time goes by, and I hear that my dad has to report to Chatham for his call up registration,this I rember from Raymond the boy next door and he of course was killed on his first flight ,so dad goes up to Chatham and reports to the office centre,as they are ordered to do,When he comes back after reporting he saya he will not be going into the army after all,as whist he was waiting with some of the other men, a man from the aircraft company that makes the Sunderland flying Boats asks if there is anyone who can drive heavy lorries as they need a driver for delivering aircraft parts and bodies to other parts of the country, as it happens Dad is the only one who has this qualifcation,so he will be driving these lorries. for Short Brothers. but he will have to move to chatham to be nearer the works as he will be on call 24 hrs.we are still having air raids so this means Mum an I will be on our own, as Dad wont be at home. we still spend some nights in the shelter,also at school we spend a lot of time in the school shelters,Dad says we should stay with my aunt Flo,at the farm,so this is what we will do, my Mum isnt very happy about it,even though Flo is her sister,and somtimes they have words as my Mum seems to be doing a lot of housework and cooking for them,Dad say this is bound to happen because where there are seven people all living under one roof it will cause problems,regards sleeping and washing, as there is only the one bathroom and toilet. Once again to-night the air raid sirens sound warning of another raid on its way,so again we have to spend the night in the air raid shelter,at Aunt Floe:s shelter,My Dad has one more week before he has to report to Chatham so he will be on duty again to- night over at Sturry, so we will be on our own except for the cousins and Aunt Flos husband Ritchard,Its around 11 P M when this raid starts so Mum says she cant sleep, so will sit on the top steps of the shelter and watch what goes on over the town.meanwhile the rest of us try to settledown for the night as best we can.In the morning I hear my Mum talking to Aunt Flo about the long conversation she had whilst sitting at the top of the shelter.with a Nun who she says was on her way to the monestry or convent which is on Uncles Ritchards Farm down in the woods,Aunt Flo says there is no Convent or Monestry now standing, only the ruins of one that used to be there, and that was a Jesuit Monestry many years ago. so where the Nun was going only she would have known and maybe she had lost her way,anyway Nuns were not allowd out after midnight from the Monestry they always had to in or back by Ten pm as far as my Aunt can rember.so they recon my Mum must have fallen asleep and had a dream,but Mum say because it such a lovly night she herself had actualy gone for a walk around the farm, and it was when she came back that she had met the Nun, Mum never said what they talked about that night, ButThen one day my Mum met a old man down at the shops in Hales Place, and got talking to him and happened to mention about the monestry,he new somthing about it but it was a ruin even in his days he said but he rembered that a Nun was knocked down and killed by a train on the crossing up to the what is now the track up to the farm,and of course would have been the track to the Monestry, he said that others had heard that the Nun had been seen by some others on occasions,so perhaps the Nun was a restless spirit { a ghost } My Mum had always maintained that she had a second sight, and had seen ghosts when she worked at the hospital as a nurse,she had never said anything to anyone outside of the family as others would think she was a little mad.My Mother was very religious, and would have many different religious denominations visit our house before we were bombed out,I guess I will never know the real truth about any of this but my Mum was always adament that she really did talk to this Nun.on that evening.
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