Thursday, April 25, 2013

A to Z Challenge: V Is For Victory

V Is For Victory

Earlier this week I wrote a post about things that have no value without knowing their back story.  This is another post about one of those things. 

When my mother died, one of the things I saved was an assortment of rocks and shells my mother collected as mementos.  Each object has a story, but because today's theme is "V,"  I will tell the story of the V rock.

My mother was English and as a child she lived in Harrow with her family.  During World War II her parents sent her to boarding school at the Marist Convent in Hythe to get her away from the bombing in London.  She had an aunt who was a nun there (Auntie Euphemia.) 


One day my mother went to the village with a group of students.  A German plane buzzed the town and fired its guns.  The girls all safely avoided the hail of bullets.  Later that day my mother wrote a letter to her parents and shared her afternoon adventure.  That was the end of boarding school for my mother.  Her parents brought her back to London; even with the Blitz, they thought it would be safer for her at home.

Before she left Hythe my mother went for a walk on the beach and found the rock that now sits with the other mementos in my back bedroom.  She told me that when she found the rock she knew with a certainty that England would win the war.  It was a sign.



V is for Victory.  

13 comments:

  1. Had she been walking in the other direction it would have been a ^ and we might have lost the war!

    You should print out that story and keep it with the rock.

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  2. That little stone holds a great story. I agree with Joeh, put the story with this treasure and hopefully generations of your family will reflect on it also.

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  3. What an interesting rock! Well, she was right, they won the war, and sometimes I think of what the world would be like today if that had not happened. It's a bit scary to consider.

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  4. Enjoyed your rock story...good job on A-Z Challenge

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  5. Wonderful job on on the A-Z challenge such interesting writing cu-dos to you.I was born in England after the war and my Mum told me hair raising stories in her then home in Scarborough in western England on the coast they were bombed a lot during the war.

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  6. What a story and memento! Print this blog post and make sure it stays with that rock.

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  7. I see a little hole in it. Was it ever a necklace?

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  8. How wonderful of your mother to pass that story onto you, along with that special memento. And now you are continuing the legacy of the V Rock. Beautiful!

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  9. What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing. New follower here. I'm stopping by from the "A to Z" challenge and I look forward to visiting again.

    Sylvia
    http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

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  10. Cool how sometimes nature offers up exactly what we need to see when we need to see it. And how amazing that she held onto it for so many years for you to find in her collection. What an important piece of history.

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  11. This is a great story. Thanks for sharing.

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