I saw the play about Gracie Fields on BBC4 last night, Jane Horrocks as Gracie was stunning. It put me in touch with thinking about my mum and dad and their war time experiences and how as a postwar baby I grew up in the legacy of that time. I guess I am a PTSD baby. My dad never recovered from his war time experiences it marked him for life. I can't figure out how much of how he was was down to the war and how much was being a baby born in 1913 to a rather Victorian mum.
My parents delayed having children until the war was over apart from a pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage that I don't think my dad ever knew about. Their first baby died in 1947 6 days old and then my sister was born and then me. How could our childhood be normal with that kind of pre birth story?
Since my dad's death I feel close to the Second World War experiences of him and others. It's weird like I am carrying them for him or perhaps they have always been inside me but are now surfacing. I don't know where one thing ends and the other begins. I just weep.
So enough damage how can we live without war?
Best,
William
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I use this blog to cover various things that interest and delight me. This includes creative writing: the adventure of the mystic detective, the lives of some imaginary characters (including my spiritual director Q who can be consulted by email) and some poems.
