"I was 13 then. I was dragged to the shelter every time. I couldn't get out of bed. I was a lazy girl. Me mother...used to stand over me, pull the clothes off and at the finish used to say, 'I'm going out for the Polis'. And he used to yank me out. He used to say 'You're the only one around here who won't get out of bed.' I didn't get dressed (to go to the shelter) I had my pyjamas on all the time.
Me mother never took me to the shelter. It was the Polis. She used to go mad. We lived a block up from Wilkinsons, in Church Street. We hadn't got a shelter in our house. Nothing. We went to the shelter with my Aunt and her family. One of her daughters, her fiance was with my brother in the smoker's room. He went (was killed) as well. Nice young man about 22. It was a stray bomb...we'd been in the shelter for a couple of hours or so...me Mother and Aunt were talking across me when all of a sudden I said 'Be Quiet'. I heard the whistle. Didn't know what it was. That was it. The smoker's room was on the top, with the machinery. The women and children were downstairs. I was in the corner...with my mother and auntie either side. I never even had a scratch. They had bricks on their back, everything. Wound up in hospital. My brother was in the smoker's room, where half the men went.
I heard the whistle. Didn't know what it was. That was it.
I can't remember a lot about the rescue...Mrs Lee (an ARP warden) she was there everywhere...helping everybody. She was outside all the time when the bombs were dropping to see everyone was all right. She was great, better than the men. She saw everybody in. I don't think that woman had a nerve in her body. I was trapped for six or seven hours. It was the next morning. There was a hand in front of us...pulled us out. That was it. I just wandered away. I was in a stupor through it all. Not unconscious...I was awake. I wandered off a mile away down to where the Royal Quays are now. A policeman found me and took me home. My mother and auntie were in hospital, so I went in to an empty house. Of course they were out the next day...with back injuries. She was ill a long time me mother. I had to stay off school to look after her."
"Afterwards, when I worked in a shop, I started to stutter. I was so shy. My mother used to call me 'Gob' until it happened. But I was never frightened of anything until I was 17 and a half and joined the WRENS and you know the barracks - the black out and everything - I went beserk. I went screaming. I thought I was still in the shelter...but I knew I wasn't. I went stupid. It told on me then. I mean I'd lost a brother but it just didn't sink deep enough. But when I joined up I had to see a psychiatrist. Got over that. I think with the blackout and everything I just went off it.
Later, I got me confidence back. I was posted as an officer's stewardess to a little country place near Newcastle under Lyme. Well, as we were goin' on the train I met up with this Liverpool girl and we got friends. I said to her 'Look out there. Look at all those cows. We're going to have an awful time'. Oh boy. It was great. Yanks! I used to get cups for Jivin'.
You know even now I've got to sleep in a bedroom where I can see daylight. That's how it tells on me. You don't realise. It tells on you in some way."
Mrs Marshall lost her brother: James Sanderson aged 20: Mortuary No 100