The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow Read Free

work. Connie was full of sympathy and wanted to know what had happened because it wasn’t every day I sent for a doctor. But we couldn’t discuss it properly because Joe was in the shop.
    Connie had obviously warned him because he didn’t mention Rosie or her age. Instead he was full of Rudolf Hess’s flight to the Duke of Hamilton’s estate.
    ‘There’s something in the wind,’ he said, lighting up one of his home-made cigarettes. ‘A Nazi like that doesn’t fly hundreds of miles just to say hello. I bet Hitler wants to make peace with us.’
    I let his words wash over me but Connie was eager to keep the conversation going. She said, ‘What do you think about the call-up for women, Joe?’
    Joe was all for it but he got me worried again when he said, ‘I expect you’ll be called up, Ann – you being a young single woman.’
    I looked at him in alarm but Connie laughed. ‘Ann can’t go because she has her sister to look after. She might not be married but she’s got more responsibilities than some who are.’
    After Joe had gone, I asked Connie if this call-up would include me but she said no. It would only be women and girls who had no ties – women who could move to the munitions factories or work on the farms in the Land Army. To be honest, by dinner time I was totally washed out and thinking once more what a terrible world this was. I wondered if the sun would ever shine on us again.
    That evening, Dad was almost beside himself with worry when Rosie mentioned the doctor and even the doctor’s reassuring words didn’t make him feel any better.
    I went to bed early as I wanted to write to Greg, my fiancé. He was working in a place called Bletchley Park in England, in some office doing war work, he said. He hadn’t passed the medical for the armed forces because of his bad leg but his letters were full of news about days spent being busy and I know he enjoyed the routine and the work. It was all a bit hush-hush but then so was everything in these traumatic times.
    I had mentioned Rosie’s pregnancy in one of my letters but I didn’t want to be all gloomy tonight and give him all my worries and woes so I tried to keep the letter as cheerful as possible – not an easy task.
    His letters were full of chat about the people he worked with and how lovely the countryside was where he was stationed. ‘The war seems so unreal in a lovely peaceful place like this,’ he wrote. ‘Yet we can hear the muffled sounds of the planes as they drop their bombs on London and the night-time sky is often fiery red with all the blazing buildings. It’s terrible to think about it.’
    I dashed off a quick letter before I spent another sleepless night. I was hoping to look for somewhere else to stay but I felt I couldn’t abandon Rosie just now. She needed help with the house and the shopping and I was the only one close enough who could do it as Granny and Alice were unable to rush around looking after her. All these jumbled thoughts went round in my brain again – the worry and uncertainty of the war and thinking about Danny and Greg. Would they ever come home again?
    I fell asleep around dawn only to be wakened a couple of hours later by the usual sounds coming from Rosie’s room. I stumbled wearily towards the door, feeling as if I had the entire weight of the world on my shoulders. Still, the next day was Saturday. On Saturday and Sunday Lily and I normally stayed away from the house. Dad and Rosie needed some time on their own so we would head for the Overgate.
    On the Saturday afternoon, Granny had a visit from Minnie and her son Peter. I hadn’t seen her for a while and it was great to catch up with all the news. Minnie and Peter had been lucky to escape from the Clydebank bombing last year and they were now back staying with her mother while her husband was away in the army.
    What a strange man-less society we are, I thought – women and children and older men only. As Greg said, an unreal world.
    Minnie