Wednesday 6 November 2013

The life and times of Grace!

As I teased a few days ago I'm going to start sharing some adventure's of my mum Grace. My mum was amazing and had all kinds of adventures in her all too short life.
Mum had a very strong personality and a temper to match. Saying that she never really showed it, and in all my childhood she never smacked me. She had the mum look lol you know the "don't mess with me" look that you knew you had to behave.
When she was 14 the Second World War broke out and by the time she was 16 she wanted to do her bit.

Mum and older brother Tom in about 1936



She thought the best fit for her would be the women's land army. This was a far cry from her life in the city of London .


It was a very hard life on the farms. The girls were expected to carry out work that men would have done normally so it was often heavy, dirty work. Many girls come totally unprepared and it was very hard for them all. My mum love the life and took to it like a duck to water, she loved to work with the horses best.
So at the time of this adventure she was billeted in her favourite place Cornwall in the UK. She adored Cornwall and we went back over and over when I was a child.
Mum was living near a very famous place in Cornwall called "St Micheal's Mount" which is a huge house on a tidal island 366 metres of the coast of Cornwall.



As you can see from this picture it is a impressive sight. There is a path that you can walk across when the tide is out. When high tide is there you can't reach it except by boat. My mum was a very strong swimmer and as it was a lovely day she thought she would swim in the water around the mount. She was not aware that there is very strong pull under the water, and before she knew it she was in trouble. As strong a swimmer as she was she was not coping and fast being dragged out to sea. At one point she thought it was all over, then at the last second a fishing boat pulled her out of the water and she was saved.
A second of two later and I would be around to write this blog lol as she was that close to losing her life.
Lets say she did not try swimming around the mount again!

Mum and older brother Tony


Hope you enjoyed reading about Grace and please come back next Wednesday for the next story. I would love to hear your family stories so please comment and tell me all about them.

4 comments :

  1. Awww Nan was such a charactor. Love hearing about her adventures xxx

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  2. Wow Jill, We've been to St. Michaels mount and I had no idea. thank you for writing about this I'm going to keep it for the boys to read as I don't have any stories from your side of the family. I hope you share some more xxxx

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    1. How funny Lou! It's one of many stories I plan on sharing. She had a few adventures lolxccxx

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