Personal Memories - Betty Cowley

“Our two evacuees were company although I admit to being quite frightened of the elder of the two, who arrived with filthy feet and the only clothes she had were the ones she stood up in. Mum soon remedied this but I still remember my heartbreak when she was given a cream and brown check coat with a brown velvet collar which was to have passed on to me from my sister.

They were treated just like us and sometimes better, I thought.

When I asked God to bless them in my prayers each night I often felt hypocritical, especially of one.

I found myself giving up my much treasured books which she would deliberately tear or drop on the floor, and I had to keep quiet because she was a long way from home!”

Betty Cowley, Sturton by Stow.
Extract from Call Back Yesterday - People of Lincolnshire remember the war. Lincolnshire Books, 1995.