Home Front Girls

Freddy, and even going across the yard would be a start, surely?
    ‘I dare say I should,’ she muttered, although she felt as if he’d asked her to climb a mountain. She had got used to being confined within her own four walls and the thought of venturing out was terrifying. But then he’d said that Lucy was crying, and she’d come to look on the girl as one of her own. Laying her knitting aside, the big woman took a deep breath and rose from her seat, then forcing herself to place one foot in front of the other she crossed the room and stepped out into the sunshine. It felt strange to breathe the fresh air but she didn’t linger to enjoy it, merely kept on going until she was safe in Lucy’s kitchen. Only then did she realise that she was shaking like a leaf, but still she held herself together as she approached Lucy to ask, ‘What is it, love?’
    ‘Oh, Mrs P.’ Lucy flung herself into the woman’s arms and the tears came fast and furious until Mrs P was convinced that she was going to drown in them.
    ‘That’s it, you cry it all out now an’ when you’ve done I’ll make you a nice hot cup o’ sweet tea an’ you can tell me all about it.’ Sod the sugar ration, thought Mrs P as she continued to hold Lucy tightly. At last the sobs subsided to dull hiccuping whimpers and Mrs P tenderly stroked the damp hair from Lucy’s sweating forehead. The poor lass had worked herself up into a rare old lather, there was no doubt about it.
    She gently pressed her back into the chair and minutes later when Lucy sat with a steaming mug of tea in front of her, the woman asked, ‘Now how about yer tell me what’s wrong, eh? They reckon a trouble shared is a trouble halved.’
    Lucy seemed to be remarkably calm now. Too calm by half, Mrs P privately thought, as if she’d had all the stuffing knocked out of her.
    ‘Is it Mary – or Joel?’ she asked softly.
    Lucy shook her head. ‘No. It’s . . . it’s my mother. She died today.’

Chapter Eighteen
     
    ‘Yer mother ! But I thought yer said yer mother had died just afore you moved here?’ Mrs P gasped.
    ‘I told everyone that,’ Lucy answered dully, ‘but she didn’t. She’s been in a hospital since just after my dad died – well, an asylum really. An asylum for the insane. That’s where I’ve been going every Sunday, to see her. And today . . . she died.’
    ‘Oh, luvvie.’ Mrs P was horrified. And to think that this poor girl had kept that terrible secret to herself for all this time. No wonder she and Joel had always clammed up whenever she had probed about their parents. ‘But whyever didn’t yer tell me? There’s no shame in the poor soul bein’ mentally ill.’
    ‘There’s a lot more to it than that,’ Lucy whispered. ‘But I can’t tell anyone about it – ever ! I promised Joel.’
    Mrs P was confused now but she wisely held her tongue. ‘So what will you be doin’ about the funeral?’ she asked tentatively. Perhaps Lucy would need some help in organising it. She was very young to have that sort of responsibility on her shoulders.
    ‘It’s all being taken care of by the asylum,’ Lucy croaked. ‘They have their own burial ground there. All I have to do is turn up for the service on Wednesday.’
    It all sounded very cold and clinical and Mrs P shuddered. ‘But won’t there be people who you’ll want to be there to give her a send-off?’
    Lucy shook her head. ‘No, it will be just me. And Mrs P – I’d be very grateful if you didn’t mention this to anyone.’
    ‘Of course I won’t if you don’t want me to, apart from my Fred, but he’ll not say nothin’,’ the woman promised her. ‘But there must be something I can do for yer. Would yer like me to come with you?’
    ‘No, I appreciate the offer but I’d rather go alone.’
    ‘So be it then, but if yer change yer mind, the offer’s there.’ Mrs P was secretly appalled at the thought of the poor woman having such a wretched turnout for her funeral. But then if that was how Lucy wanted it, it wasn’t her place to interfere or express her opinion. Everyone grieved differently and it appeared that Lucy just wanted to get it over with as quickly and as quietly as she could.
    She stayed with the girl for another half an hour, although she soon realised that she might as well not have been there. Lucy had become very quiet and distracted, so eventually she told her, ‘I’m goin’ now, love, but I’m only next door should yer need me. Are you sure you’ll