The Mysterious Stranger

The most distinctive thing I remember about the war was when the air raids started and my grandma took us all to sit under the stairs where they kept the coal. We used to sit there and me grandma would have her rosary beads out, the rosary beads worked ‘cos were still all here. In the early 40s my uncle; Bernie Blundle, gave a false age to sign up for this ship when he was 16 (he lied about his age), he said to his mother; my grandmother “Get me up, ‘cos I’m sailing tomorrow on the 3:30 tide.” She went berserk, her only son. During that afternoon, a stranger came to our house and her said “Mrs Blundle, you don’t know me but I’ve heard that your son has signed on for a certain ship which sails at 3:30 in the morning. Well if you take my advice, I wouldn’t let him go.” So my grandmother thanked the stranger.
She didn’t set the alarm, so our Bernie missed his ship and of course, he went berserk; missing his first voyage. Well the ship itself reached the English Channel and was torpedoed. All hands lost, everyone lost on it. Our Bernie lived till his late 70s and he often told that story. ‘Cos of my grandmother not letting him go, or not setting the alarm clock and some complete stranger coming, knocking on our door who we never, ever saw again, Bernie’s life was saved.

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