My Mother the Runaway
My mother, by all accounts, had quite the life, especially in her younger years. Though some of what I know I only know from stories my sister told me much later, after my mum passed. What I did get to hear from her, firsthand, was how, despite being in a loveless marriage. An arranged marriage at that. And still only being technically a teenager (18), she ran away from home.
Let me tell you I was as surprised as anyone, knowing not only had my mother been married before she met my dad, but that it barely lasted a year before she knew she was suffocating and, left. That's how she put it. From somewhere deep inside, she found the courage to not only leave a man she didn't love. But in doing so, defied convention, this was back in the early stage of WWII. A number of women, she told me, were doing the same.
Why? Well, for the obvious, but also, because, at the time, the military were desperately recruiting as many young women as they could into the services. And, like many, my mum knew she wanted a better life. A different life, and one that gave her opportunities. She left to join the WAAFs and trained as an MT driver. Her first posting was to the outer most reaches of Scotland, to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. Where she served as a driver for the aircrew of squadrons patrolling the North Atlantic for U-boats, flying Avro Ansons under Costal Command.
She told me a story about how one night she was called up to drive out to the runway, in the dark, with no lights on, in order to help a troubled aircraft land. She had to guide the plane in by driving, still in the dark, but pumping her breaks to flash out a small red light for the plane to see and follow.
Can you image? I know I can't fully grasp doing what she did, out there on her own, being guided by people in the tower to effectively "jerk" her way up the runway for the plane to know when said runway was. All in the middle of the night in the dark.
For her, even terrified, she said it was one of the most exhilarating things she's ever done in her life, and never once regretted escaping her family and marriage to create a life for herself. And for that, I salute her courage.