The Ient Family: Family History

My Girlfriend was Still Waiting for Me!

My girlfriend was still waiting for me. We used to work in the transport offices together, she was only 16, 17 when I first met her – I was about 17. We weren’t engaged but she waited for me all this time and on 1 May 1946 we were married. We had a son, Philip Keith, and he was born in October 1947. Quite a homecoming actually at Sunderland railway station, north end as I remember, everybody was waiting – all the friends and neighbours and relatives, and the train was very late in getting in, it must have been getting on towards midnight. And of course I was surprised and amazed at this reception because I was the only POW there, and this lovely young lady came dashing towards me and threw her arms round me and kissed me and hugged me and I remember saying, 'I don’t know who you are but you’re a bit of alright,' and it eventually transpired she was my younger sister, which was a bit of a blow as far as I was concerned. [Laughs.] That was Ivy, my sister. And my elder sister was Mable and of course she was there as well – there was the flags out and everything.

My mother was still alive at the time but my father wasn’t there, because they were still separated. They never got back together again. Life wasn’t very easy at all in Olive Street. Money was in short supply and you had to find your own entertainment and so on.


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