Evacuated to Aylestone

After seventy plus years it's very hard to remember exactly what year I was sent to stay with friends of my mothers in Aylestone. It was likely in 1940 as the general panic about getting the children away from the large cities had begun in ernest. Now all I can recall about that time was staying at a lovely semi detached house, on Narrow Lane with a Mrs Powderill and her unmarried son Neville. My mother stayed with me most of the time but over Christmas they sent for her as Dad had become seriously ill and was in hospital.A 4-wheel-drive ambulance was sent to take her to his bedside. Later he was sent to Cromer as he recovered. Finally he joined us at Easter in Aylestone. I can also recall playing in a walled children's playground behind one of the local pubs. There were other children there and we managed to buy special wooden matches that burned slowly in different colours. We were yelled at by some adults for lighting them in the blackout, but we continued to do it just the same. It was while I stayed here that my little pet mongrel Nan picked up rat poison and died, this broke my heart as that dog and I were inseperable . After leaving Aylestone I was sent to some other auntie's home in Bath for a year. Then we all went back to live in our own home in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, where we stayed till 1948. M. Denman Lalonde