Life for Betty Smith, 71, when she was growing up was, in her own words, “not very nice at all”.Looking at her now, you couldn’t begin to imagine the horrors the Nan-of-four (not Gran- she says this makes her sound old) has been through.
Betty was basically born straight into World War Two – she was one when it started - which meant a life of rations, air raid shelters, bombing and basically all-round misery.
At first she finds it hard to pin-point a particular memory- detailing all about how she used to stay with her ‘Granny Mavermont’ who she says was dumped and brought up in a workhouse – according to ‘her Pat’.
Then, as she fiddles with her antique butterfly brooch, she tells of the hardships of growing up through the war- like the way her and her sisters always had to wash their own clothes, do all their shopping and their cleaning themselves. “We never had anything done for us- we always had to provide for ourselves” said the 4ft 8inch pensioner.
She then breaches onto the subject of how she was evacuated. The way her face changes into a frown as she talks about it shows there is much hurt that lies behind that story. After gentle probing, she starts to reveal the real story…
She talks about the cruel process in which it happens, when she reveals her sisters were picked straight away, but she was left behind. “I didn’t want to say goodbye to my sisters”, she says “I didn’t know what was happening: one minute I was standing with them, and the next, they were being taken away as I started screaming.”
She notes how it’s definitely one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. Even when she was finally sent to her evacuation placement- which was in the countryside of Derbyshire, she was badly treated.
She remembers one instance where she wet the bed, so her strict ‘guardian’ who she remembers just as ‘Mary’, made her sit her on the outside gate to dry off her clothes- leaving her freezing cold. “It’s definitely not an experience I’d like to repeat” said the crossword-addict.
All you can feel is great admiration for this woman, who has gone through so much in her lifetime. It starts to make you think about how teenagers today really don’t know what problems are. Their problems, such as too much homework, seem petty compared to the horrors Betty and her friends had to suffer through.
She sits there with a pensive look on her face “I’m sorry” says the former factory worker “I really can’t think of anything else – us old people are terrible when it comes to remembering things!”
She is assured that she has been very helpful – causing a cheerful, warm smile to break across her wrinkled face. “You young kids today really aren’t as bad as they make out in the papers- your all lovely”
And with that compliment, she sets off, shopping-trolley in tow, to flash the cash at the local Bingo. She likes to live on the edge these days.
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