‘Thanks for keeping me company last night, Elsie,’ she said.
‘I was glad you were there. I don’t like being in the shelter alone.’
We smiled at one another.
‘Where have you been on your day off? Have you been up to something fun?’
‘Nelly and I have been at the hospital,’ I said. ‘But not working.’ I explained about us writing letters for the injured airmen and she beamed at me.
‘What a marvellous thing to do. Well done.’
‘One of the chaps was telling me about how he felt when he was flying. It really was marvellous. I said he should write it down in a diary but he said he wasn’t allowed.’
Mrs Gold leaned against the doorframe. ‘You could do it.’
‘Keep a diary?’
‘I remember hearing that in the last war, lots of the nurses who looked after the wounded soldiers kept books – big sort of scrapbooks – and they let their patients write in them.’
I was intrigued. ‘And what did they write?’
‘All sorts. Memories of the war, accounts of battles, poems, Bible verses. Some of them drew pictures even. They’re real treasures, I believe.’
‘What a lovely idea,’ I said. ‘Like a book of memories.’
‘Yes, exactly.’
‘Maybe Nelly and I could do that? Get a book and let the patients write in it.’ I frowned. ‘Our patients aren’t soldiers, though.’
‘Everyone has a story to tell,’ said Mrs Gold wisely.
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I’ll talk to Nelly about it when she gets back from the shops.’
She grinned at me. ‘Let me know if you need any help,’ she said.
Chapter 10
Stephanie
Present day
‘So there’s this huge book, and apparently it’s full of stories and letters and drawings about the war,’ I told Tara at The Vine later. She was polishing glasses and I was watching her. Now as I talked, she handed me a cloth and pushed one of the glasses towards me. I screwed the cloth up in my hand and ignored the glass.
‘Finn had to go so I didn’t get to have a proper look inside but he says it’s unbelievable. It should be in a museum or something, not an old people’s home.’
‘Where did it come from?’ She frowned. ‘Was it just stashed in a closet somewhere.’
‘It was in the basement apparently. They found it a couple of years ago when they were doing building work.’
‘And this guy – this Finn – he’s the one who found it?’
I scoffed. ‘No, he’s a historian.’
‘That’s not a job.’
I threw my head back in triumph. ‘That’s what I said! But apparently he teaches history or something.’
‘And he has the book now?’
