‘When do I get the pleasure of seeing my little sisters?’ Madge asked with a smile.
‘Well, for a start they are not so little now,’ she replied. ‘Doris is still working in the Land Army on the farm near East Grinstead, but Doreen is normally back from school around half past four.’
Mum asked what Madge was smiling about. ‘It seems silly really,’ she said, ‘but the reason is that I’ve just enjoyed the simple pleasure of having a glass of water straight from the tap!’
‘What did you do in India?’ asked Mum.
‘Boiled it,’ smiled Madge. ‘We boiled everything. Boiled water was even used when you cleaned your teeth.’
Lily realised in that moment how different life must have been in India for her eldest daughter and just how much they had to catch up on.
Madge was entitled to a long period of leave which helped her ease back into an England that was paying the price of six ferociously costly years of war. Food was still strictly rationed and supplies of bacon were actually lower than when Madge had left for India in July 1944.
The rationing worried her far less than the lack of communication with Basil, who said on that last night in Chittagong that whatever happened to him he would really appreciate it if she would spend time with his parents when she got home. Madge didn’t even know if he was aware that she was back living in Dover, but once she had settled in, she contacted Basil’s mother and father and was invited to spend a weekend at their home in Surrey.
Madge was told that there would be somebody to meet her off the train when she got to Woking, and she could hardly believe her eyes as she came out of the station, looked across the road, and there he was. Her heart leapt. ‘Basil!’ she shouted. ‘Basil!’ But she had another surprise when she realised it wasn’t Basil, but his brother Bill. She was disappointed but was able to see the funny side. He introduced himself as Basil’s eldest brother just as a group of people came out of a nearby pub to find them standing there doubled up with laughter.
‘Goodness knows what those people must have thought,’ Madge said eventually after they had composed themselves. ‘We must have looked like we were cracking up!’
Madge knew from a letter she had received from Basil that Bill had been wounded by shrapnel in northern France in the spring of 1945, but nothing was mentioned and she decided it was better not to bring the subject up. Bill was very charming and it turned out that Madge was actually very lucky to meet him as he was still in the army and was spending a long weekend at the family home in Horsell for the first time in months.
‘The kettle’s on,’ said Basil’s mother Alys as she gave Madge the warmest of welcomes after Bill had guided her on the short walk to the house. When he told Alys and his father Herbert about the saga at the station the sitting room filled with laughter. The ice had been broken in less than five minutes.
‘Ah, don’t you go worrying about it, love,’ said Alys as she poured the tea. ‘Those boys look so similar from the back that even I’ve got them mixed up over the years – and more than once!’
She went on to tell her about her other children – Buster (Cyril), Beryl, Brian, and Bob – before Herbert asked if she knew when Basil was returning to England. When Madge replied that she wasn’t even sure where he was, let alone knew when he was coming back, it made everybody smile again.
‘Did you have a nice few days up there?’ asked Madge’s mum when she returned to Dover.
‘They couldn’t have made me feel more at home,’ said Madge. ‘It was like being one of the family and there was the loveliest of surprises just as I left because I’ve been invited to the wedding of Brian, one of Basil’s younger brothers.’
After her Surrey visit, Madge received a phone call from Grace, who was living back in Yorkshire. Grace wondered if she would be interested in helping her eldest sister Hetty, who owned a maternity home in Birchington-on-Sea, north of Dover. Madge said she would be happy to do that for just two months.
It was such a change to nursing in the Burma Campaign, because in the main there was such joy and happiness when babies were born. She also had Grace, who was staying at her sister’s nursing home for a few weeks, to show her the ropes, which made her feel very much at ease. Grace refused to let her stay down in the dumps and never tired of listening to her talk about how long it would be before she would see Basil again.
In Chittagong the nurses had been so short of bandages at one stage that they had had to tear sheets into strips, and they had had to make their own cotton buds as well as absorbent pads at times. So it was a major bonus for Grace and Madge to have everything readily available.
The two months soon turned into many more and along the way Madge spent a pleasant autumn weekend in Horsell with Basil’s mother and father, who diplomatically never once brought up the great unaskable question. Unlike her much loved younger sisters Doreen and Doris, who drove her to distraction asking when Basil was coming home and when she was getting married.
They were told repeatedly that the subject of marriage had not been discussed with Basil in Chittagong and that she simply
