Born in Darlington in 1925 she had 2 brothers who served in the marines and airforce during the 2nd World War. Gladys served in the airforce, trained in communications to send and receive morse code messages. I thought she would have heard lots of interesting information but she tells me she never knew what she was sending or receiving as it was all in code and therefore made no sense to her or her colleagues at all. During the war she served some time in Paris and I'm sure she could write a whole book on her experiences from her forces days.
She married Harry, who was a pilot, in 1946. Harry was also from Darlington and, having completed some of his training in Hawaii, served some time in Burma. After the war ended they lived in Darlington. Unfortunately, Harry was to die in 1951 in a flying accident. Ironically, having survived the war he died while rehearsing for a Battle of Britain display.
Gladys was to remarry in 1959 and here is one of those stories that could almost only come from the war years. Gladys' 2nd husband was also from Darlington but hadn't known Gladys from their shared home town. He actually knew Harry from their training in Hawaii. Having returned to Darlington and hearing of Harry's death he called on Gladys to express his sympathies.
It was some years later that they became a couple and moved to Vancouver and married in 1959. She was to remain married to Ian until he passed away in 1999.
She has continued to live in Vancouver and now has a lovely apartment with beautiful views. She puts her good health down to swimming 40 lengths at the local baths 3 times a week. She has an incredibly active mind and a funny story for every topic. During her visit I lost count of the number of times she asked me 'had I heard the one about........?'
She spent a couple of weeks here in Terreros, boogied down with the best of them at the Halloween party at the local Bistro and was an incredibly lovely lady to have met.
She was travelling to spend some time with her sister-in-law further up the Spanish coast after leaving Terreros and this week has returned to Vancouver. Hopefully she has some lovely memories of her visit, certainly she made an impression on us. She told us some lovely stories of her life, some very personal. She has seen so many changes during her lifetime and it's lady's like Gladys that should be invited into schools to talk to the children, they bring history to life in a way books and films could never do.
It was a pleasure meeting you - Cheers!
1 comment:
What wonderful posts, Jacqui, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Lucy's Great Aunty Gladys.
We have adopted a Gladys who now is almost 89. She & her 2nd husband, Mike, used to live oposite us where we live here around 15 years ago, but they moved a few hundred yards (or is it metres these days)down the road to be on the flat rather than here on the hill. Mike died at 80 but Gladys, though frail now, is well & moved to Barnstable to live with her grandaughter.
She loved me to tell her all about Spain .. still does in our weekend phone calls .. (over a boiled egg & soldiers she used to do when I stayed for lunch) & I have heard lots about what she did in her earlier years.
I well understand how fascinating you found Great Aunty Gladys.
Janice x
Post a Comment