A TRUE STORY - LOST IN TIME 

By Tessa Harvey


    1955
    Lucy ran up the steps with her brother Johnny. They both knocked. Dad and mum were following with baby Ben.
    Little Grandma opened the door, smiling so wide, her grey-white hair tied up in her usual hairnet. Her wide glasses magnified her lovely eyes. She hugged them until Johnny squirmed away and ran to the toybox. 
    Grandad was in the kitchen, sat at the small table. He was polishing a beautiful silver bracelet.    
    The little girl was stunned with wonder. Grandad said he made it for her. Silver robins were on the farthings. The coins were worth a quarter of a penny, half a halfpenny. "That sounds so funny," said Lucy, who loved robins. "Grandad, did the robins like the war?" Grandad thought back to the mud, the broken trees, the explosions - and gulped slightly.  "No, God put them somewhere safe." 
Lucy thought, "then did God help you in the war, Grandad?"
    Mum flurried into the kitchen then with baby Ben who was wailing. He saw Grandad and the wailing instantly stopped, leaving little tear and runny nose tracks. Mum saw the bracelet and her eyes widened. "It's beautiful," she breathed then cast a sideways look at her eldest son. Her father-in-law instantly understood and fished around slowly in his pocket. He drew out a carefully carved small piece of wood. Johnny took it, puzzled, then his face lit up! A whistle!
    It sounded melodious, not strident, to mum's relief. Grandad explained how he had carved it from a piece of elder wood. My brother was interested in every detail and none of us were surprised when he left school early and became a carpenter.
    Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, was also a carpenter. We were brought up going to church, but I still wanted to know if God had been real to Grandad in the war.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
A TRUE STORY - LOST IN TIME  By Tessa Harvey     Moira next door smelt the smoke first. She hobbled outside, grabbing her stick. Martha, across the way had a phone now and she hurried to alert her.     But before she could, Jim's car drove up and he banged open the door and raced straight inside. The smoke was thick and disgusting, cloying and terrible.     Sensibly, he pulled back, calling his wife Amy to get help. Moira, shakily, pointed her in the right direction. People were gathering. Lucy ran up with an old baby blanket. "Dad," she yelled, though he was standing right there, "tie it round your face. They showed us at school. Keep low," she added and began to cry. But Jim was gone, crawling. Dimly, he heard sirens, but was focusing all his strength on  locating his father. His mum had just died. Now this.     Swiftly, he reached his dad's chair. Flames were flickering, but it was smoke that had overcome his dad. He lolled, unrespons...
Read more
Image
A TRUE STORY - LOST IN TIME   By Tessa Harvey     The years passed and the boy grew. At first he played only with Maureen and Mary, the little girls from next door. Mrs. Keefe always welcomed him warmly and he was sometimes allowed to stay over after school until nearly bedtime.      Gradually Jim made friends with other boys and they would kick balls around the long street. If there was trouble, Jim looked so young he was never thought to be a willing participant. Years later, he would laugh about that with his own daughter.     As a teen, he would go out with his mates. Now he towered over his small mother, but he always respected his parents. His mum would call after him as he went to the pictures or to dances: "Be good! Have a nice time!" Naughtily, he would yell back "Make up your mind," and laugh as the lace curtains twitched up and down the street, their owners watching, listening, smiling or frowning. And away he would whistle.   ...
Read more
Image
A TRUE STORY - LOST IN TIME   By Tessa Harvey     In her dream Lucy saw herself standing by an open front door, looking at a glass cabinet. Inside were grandma's treasures and grandad's medals from the Somme and other terrible war places.     In the end, he had never told her of his war, but she saw in her dream, he had called on God's help in hopeless situations. God had answered: I will be with you in troubles.     All the treasures, medals and bracelets had gone, lost to rivalry between her sister aunts. A different war. A home war.     Then she saw herself with her own children.....The family had suffered tragedy which had nearly destroyed the survivors. Her brothers, Johnny and Ben and their spouses and children had died in a terrorist attack, lunching as a birthday treat in a crowded London cafe.     The shadows in the dream were real, then words she somehow knew were Biblical shone bright and clear to her sleeping spirit. "Ar...
Read more