The young girl waved goodbye to her parents as the train pulled out, she had no idea where she was going and she would never see them again.
It was a heartbreaking World War Two picture, the day Christine Burson left her native Czechoslovakia and one which has stayed with her throughout her long life.
“I remember mum and dad standing at the station and I was on the train and I waved to them. I didn’t realise what was to going to be and I never saw them again.
“They were wonderful people but it was the end of my relationship with them,” said 85-year-old Christine.
Her parents had arranged her evacuation from Czechoslovakia to save her from the Nazi onslaught.
Memories were rekindled for Christine and other residents at Hillbury care home in Percy Road, Wrexham – run by the Pendine Park care organisation – courtesy of Wrexham Museum.
The museum’s learning access officer Karen Teasdale took WW2 photographs, posters, identity cards, even a replica gas mask, to prompt some memories.
“The objects, which I’ve brought in an evacuee’s suitcase, will relate to their wartime experiences. We just pass them around and the residents can relate their own stories.
“I’ve done similar talks at homes and it’s amazing just how different the memories can be, from time spent in air raid shelters to working in parachute factories. And of course everyone seems to remember rationing.”
Christine, a mother-of-two and now a widow, said: “When you are a child and you go away from home you lose a lot, but you learn to look after yourself. You are a lot more resourceful than other children.
“I met a terrific man and we were married for 60 wonderful years.” Her husband Reginald Burson was a dental surgeon. He endured slave labour conditions in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, with virtually no food.
“I think me being here is a miracle, I have a lot to be grateful for,”
said Christine, a former Post Office counter clerk.
Betty Davies, 78, can remember her mum having to run to her primary school because Betty was always forgetting her gas mask.
“I went to Alexandra school at the bottom of Hope Road. We lived in Hightown in Whitegate. I used to have to take my identity card to school.
I had a little cardboard box for the gas mask and my mother would come running to the school because I forgot it. I can also remember having paper blinds. My mother also had a huge green gas mask, big enough to put a baby in,” said Betty.
“I left school at 14 and went to work in the Wrexham steam laundry, I hated it but I had to go.” Her father, Llewellyn, was a miner at Gresford colliery at the time of the 1934 pit disaster when 266 men died and was one of the volunteer rescue workers.
Betty and husband Alec were both resident at Hillbury, but sadly he died of pneumonia six years ago. She has two sons, Darren who lives in Wrexham and Clayton who lives in Mold.
Hillbury manager Cindy Clutton likes to keep residents active and encourages visits like that by the museum service, to provide mental stimulation. She recently won a prestigious national training award for her commitment to lifelong learning for herself and staff.
Mario Kreft, the proprietor of Pendine Park, said: “It has certainly brought memories flooding back for the residents.
“We try to do something different everyday to help stimulate our residents. They really enjoy doing something different and Karen gave a very interesting talk which they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy.”
