The Spy, The Lover and the Husband

Beth the young girl who took us in earlier came in with more tea and biscuits,

"Thank you Beth." Said Mr. Ashford.

"Now where were we, ah yes.....Alice gave birth to a baby girl in a convent just outside of Ypres, your father James had made contact through the resistance with Alice and they were both trying to reach France when she went into labour.

It was too dangerous to stay there so they left the convent in July 1943. The baby was left with the nuns for safety. In September 1943 they landed in Dover."

Mr Ashford opened another file dated 1949, "1949? Where have six years gone? I asked.

"I am afraid that during the latter years of the war a lot of files went missing, your mums seems to be some of those, sorry."

He went on to say,

"In 1949 your mum and dad were decommissioned and went to live in Essex. During the ten years she was in the service she received the O.B.E. and various gallantry medals for bravery, you were given them last time you came here. She was written up by the highest people in the British Army and was highly thought of by Churchill himself. She saved hundreds of lives you should all be very proud of them both."

"My dad was he in intelligence too?"

"Yes, but his files were lost, I am sorry but I know he was a hero too he saved your mum and brought her home."

We were all in tears now, holding each other.

"Thank you Mr. Ashford, thank you."

Even an ex-army man like he obviously was, was crying now too. He stood to shake our hands but I pulled him in for a group hug, he thanked us for our mum and dads service and showed us to the door.

I turned just as we were leaving and said, "What about the girl, Heidi, where is my sister?"

"That I am afraid I do not know, for that you will need to dig into your mums diaries or family, sorry."

Over the next week I had found eight names and addresses, six in Belgium and two in France with hopes of finding something out. The money in the vault came to £17,550 in cash, the bank helped us in converting the old notes plus the accounts that we needed to look into. It totaled to £106.700p so far!

So I had the funds now to research into finding my sister and who knows, even visiting her. She would be nearly 80 now and much older than us, hopefully still alive.

It took nearly six months to find her but I found her, she was French and living in a small farmhouse near Boulogne. She spoke perfect English and said our mum had made contact with her about twenty years ago and they talked frequently but sadly never got to meet. She cried when I told her of mums death 15 years ago.

We reasoned that's why the contact had abruptly ended. Our mum had told her of her other children but no contact details were ever given. She did say that they talked about her father Harry, mum had grown to love him dearly and never really recovered from his death.

She told her that he had died by blowing himself and three German soldiers up by grenade that were trying to stop them. If he had not done that they both would've been shot as spies.

Our own father James had helped her over the grief of Harry's death. She went to pieces after he died, she really loved him. It must have been so hard for my dad to see and hear all this but he still came through for her. She also grew to love my dad James just as much and maybe even more over the time they had together. She wanted to come over to see mum after her move to France but they never met and she has regretted never coming to the UK to see her.

She has five children and ten grandchildren and cannot wait to see us. She sounds like a lovely lady, I have booked a huge chateau for our whole family to go there at Christmas this year. I will take all of the books and photos I have and have a proper family get together. She can fill us in on our missing history and I can give her pictures of her hero dad who saved her and mum. She never got to meet either of her parents but we will make up for the hero's that she never met.

The End.