Evelyn Orange Author
  • Home
  • Fiction
  • Blog

VE Day - New Beginnings

5/9/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture


VE Day - Victory in Europe Day, 8th May 1945, seventy years ago. What a day that was! It was the end of hostilities in Europe, when the people of Britain could put behind them the six long years of war, and begin to look forward to the future. Because of that day, we have the Britain we live in today. 
     Because of that day,my generation could be born, and following generations too. I asked my mother what she was doing on VE Day. "Dancing in the school playground," she replied with a smile. She could remember a time of peace as she had been eleven years old when the war began. How wonderful it must have been for other teenagers like herself, just coming into adulthood. She would know that she wouldn't have to worry about her family any more - her mother and older sister had both worked in wartime industry. Her father had died before the war, but now she could look forward to meeting and marrying someone who would be safe at home and bring up a family with her.
     Watching the commemorations on television, it struck me how different groups would have reacted to the news. Starting with the youngest, there were children like Allie, the heroine of my novel Secrets and Shadows, who had been too young to remember anything but wartime. Austerity still continued, but imagine the wonder of seeing the streets lit up at night, and the strangeness of all the men returning from fighting. No more nights in the air-raid shelters, and for many a return home after years evacuated away to strangers or relations. Then there were the mothers, seeing their husbands returning from the war, safe at last, maybe sons and brothers too. For others there would be a great gaping hole left by the loss of a loved one, whether fighting or at home.  The soldiers, returning to civilian life, would have to adjust to a calmer way of life, to women who maybe had changed because they had gained so much independence during the war years, and to children they barely knew. Memories of wartime must have haunted them during their post-war lives. Of course, on VE Day, many were still fighting in the Far East, but news of the cessation of hostilities in Europe must have given them hope. Plus there would be men returning from being prisoners of war. Would they have regretted being unable to continue their fight, or would they be relieved to know that they had been spared and could return home? 
     We owe all of these people our lives and they way we live them today. As we celebrate this historic day, we also celebrate the birth of modern Britain, and we should be proud of all that came from our forebears and their years of hardship and sacrifice.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Evelyn Orange

    Archives

    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    Categories

    All
    Author
    Cats
    Evelyn Orange
    Historical Romance
    Nanowrimo
    North-east Sagas
    Romantic Novelists' Association
    Sunderland
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from zenera