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From: "tony arnold" <>
Subject: Re: Memories an more
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 20:32:07 +1000
References: <012101c1dd26$33120800$c7da5b41@z2e1c4>


I should like to put in my two pennyworth on the subject if I may? I lost my
father in ww2 when I was 8 yrs old and having lived thro the Blitz, seeing
my neighbours houses flattened in the morning on my way to school, going to
meet my mother outside a cinema in the afternoon after school only to find
that the cinema had recieved a direct hit from a V2(Fortunately my mother
and grandmother survived). Returning home from a visit to a pantomime and as
we alighted from the bus the theater we had been to was hit by a v2,
killing almost everyone at the second house, Seeing my grandmothers house
flattened by bombing and losing my grandfather. Hiding out in cellars at
night, never knowing if you would survive until morning and even then not
knowing if you would survive the day. The worst moment of all was of course
the arrival of the telegram to tell us that F.O PS Arnold my father was
missing in action. It has stayed with me all my life aand I can remember it
as yesterday. We did not know the meaning of stress,nor would we have
recognized counselling, somehow or other we got on with life, my mother
raised two boys on a widows pension thro rationing and then the cold war.We
survived and grew stronger from our experiences we did not sue anyone, money
could not have paid for our pain and we would not have known how to anyway.
My mother very rarely spoke of her loss and over time a lot of information
about my father waas lost, when she died in 1986 most of it was lost
forever.
I am very much a newbie aand have only juststarted to research my family. I
started at the war memorial at Runnymede for Aircrew without known graves
aand found my fathers citation.Yesterday I recieved from an ex RAF airgunner
some more details of his last flight including the fact that at 40yrs of age
he was one of the oldest aircrew to die in 1944 . In the post yesterday I
recieved his WW2 medals which had never been claimed.I cannot explain the
emotions that ran thro me, 58 years ago and I can still cry for my father, I
suspect that what I did was a happy sad dance.
Nobody dies while they live in our memories. Its the reason I am doing this.
Tony


----- Original Message -----
From: "phil stevens" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: Memories an more


> Hi guys , Might I chime in here , I have / had family in the Wars ,
> I lost an uncle on Guadalcanal , another one on Porkchop Hill and my
> brother served two hitchs in Nam , He has never been ' right ' since
coming
> home , something about a morter round getting his buddy in their hootch
,
> But why is it we only seem to remember to ' bad ' stuff ,
> Do any of you remember your first night with your new spouse ,
Watching
> the Sun come up to greet a new life together , the birth of your first
> child , The continuation of life ! , The reason so many of us stuggle
> thru our research , To give meaning to our existance on this planet
> ..........., Phil
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 4:43 PM
> Subject: Memories
>
>
> > Sometimes it is hard to get information from our families. Many have
> painful
> > memories that for decades they have chosen to "forget" or at least never
> > speak of. I think the most painful are War memories.
> >
>
> ______________________________

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