00:00I remember it going very dark. It was a real loud bang. Now, in those days, being in wartime,
00:10if you heard a big bang, you got under something. I turned round and saw a girl fall out of the desk
00:18and I saw my teacher slump over her desk and I got under mine. So that's possibly
00:25how I come not to have a load of rubble on me. I don't know. And then the next thing I know,
00:35there were two faces in the doorway. One was the headmaster and one was an American airman.
00:44They were trying to beckon me out, but I wasn't. I was moving. I don't even know whether I could have
00:50moved. I was just under my desk and I suppose I must have felt safe. It was very smoky and very hot.
00:59That was it. That's all I remember. I don't even remember the pain and I must have been in pain
01:06because I started making a lot of noise. We had to go to a hospital quickly. The nearest one was the
01:13American base hospital because the nearest one of our own was Lytham. The other one was Preston,
01:20which was seven miles the other way. So no, they took us to the base hospital because it was their
01:27ambulances that came to pick us up and they took us there and we were looked after there up until February.
01:34The Americans went to great lengths to rebuild the village determined to put things right.
01:43They quickly began turning an area of land into a beautiful memorial garden and children's playground,
01:50which was opened in August 1945. They installed a stone plaque with an inscription that reads,
01:59in the
02:12house.
02:13When I go to America, you'd think I was royalty, but I'm not. I'm very ordinary, but they just can't do enough for me.
02:26can't do enough for me, as long as they know, as soon as they know who I am and what I'm
02:32there for, that's it. Everything is laid on and done for me. They're just wonderful.
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