VE DAY celebrations at a Rugby care home took on a special significance for one of its residents.
As Anya Court Care Home threw a colourful party for its inhabitants on Friday (May 8), Dorothy Smith, 88, reminisced about how she met her husband 70 years ago, on the day the war ended.
“My best friend Thora and I decided to go to the milk bar for VE day,” she said. “Across the road were two students who were going to London for the celebrations. Well they never made it; they came with us to the milk bar. That afternoon we met up again and went to the pictures to see A Song to Remember.
“One of the chaps started courting my friend Thora, and the other chap named Vic began courting me! I was 18 and he was 19.
“We courted until 1949 when we married, and 15 months later we had our daughter Patricia. 14 years after her brother came along.
“I had to get married on the same day as my twin sister, as rationing was still on and my mother could not afford to make two wedding breakfasts.
“We had a long and happy marriage as my husband Vic was the most considerate man, but did not know the way to the kitchen. He would always take me away on week holidays though, as he said I worked so hard keeping the home and children.”
Meanwhile, residents at the care home put up the bunting, got dressed up in 40s clothing and enjoyed a buffet and wartime songs to celebrate the day in 1945 when Winston Churchill broadcast to the nation that the war was over.
