Grandads war: Five Years in Hospital Due to a Factory Accident

My grandad, John Williams was born in 1913. In 1939, working in a weaving factory in blackburn, he decided to join the RAF. In the week before he was due to leave, grandad had an accident in the factory. He got caught in some kind of conveyor belt and was left hanging upside down by his ankle - apparently this kind of accident was not uncommon.

Grandad's war ended, and began, that day.His family doctor wanted to amputate his foot when the accident happened,and fit him with a false one. This never happened,for reasons unknown, and grandad spent the next five years in hospital. The war ended and grandad went back to work as a cook in the hospital kitchens.

I was born in 1962, and throughout my childhood I remember my grandad always with a crepe bandage wound around his ankle. He walked with a limp, but never used a stick, and he was always afraid of us playing about and banging into his foot.

In 1973, aged 60, angina forced grandad to retire. For the next 10 years he had constant problems with his ankle. A small pinprick ulcer turned into a huge black gaping hole, which had to be dressed everyday. He must have been in tremendous amounts of pain, but he was always smiling. Grandad had the most twinkling eyes I ever saw, and everytime I saw him he always wanted to know what I had been doing or where I was going - he never complained about his problems.

In 1983 the ankle had become so bad that he was sleeping downstairs, and was virtually bed bound.The twinkle had gone from his eyes and it was an effort for him to talk to us. A new GP saved his life - she saw the wound for the first time and within hours was back with a specialist who told him in no uncertain terms that if the foot stayed on his leg a day longer he would die.

The next day Grandad had an operation which removed not only his foot but his leg from the thigh, because gangrene had spread to his lower leg - i am trying to picture which leg grandad lost but I can't remember. The following day,with fear and trepidation I went with grandma to visit him. And there he was, resplendent on the hospital bed, the colour back in his cheeks, the twinkle back in his eye, the pain gone. He was joking about his leg now being in the 'midden' and he was looking forward to having a false one fitted.

After the operation grandad got a false leg, zimmer frame and wheelchair. His angina meant he couldn't walk far anyway, but he pottered around in his shed and went out in his wheelchair. He also had another major operation to remove kidney stones.

In June 1986 he fell ill never recovered. Grandad died on 6th August 1986 in his own bed.
His war lasted 46 years. I'll never forget the twinkle in his eyes.

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