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Chapters (84)
  1. All the Days of Our Lives
  2. 1945
  3. 1931-1944
  4. I
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. 1946
  28. II
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. III
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. IV
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. V
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. Thirty-Four
  44. Thirty-Five
  45. VI
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. 1948-1949
  49. VII
  50. Thirty-Eight
  51. Thirty-Nine
  52. Forty
  53. VIII
  54. Forty-One
  55. Forty-Two
  56. Forty-Three
  57. IX
  58. Forty-Four
  59. Forty-Five
  60. Forty-Six
  61. X
  62. Forty-Seven
  63. Forty-Eight
  64. Forty-Nine
  65. Fifty
  66. Fifty-One
  67. Fifty-Two
  68. Fifty-Three
  69. Fifty-Four
  70. XI
  71. Fifty-Five
  72. Fifty-Six
  73. XII
  74. Fifty-Seven
  75. Fifty-Eight
  76. XIII
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. XIV
  79. Sixty
  80. XV
  81. Sixty-One
  82. Sixty-Two
  83. 1953
  84. All the Days of Our Lives

‘I just don’t know what to do,’ she had confided to Ruth during their conversation on the beach when Ruth had encouraged her to make more of herself. ‘I don’t know how to go about things.’

‘Well,’ Ruth had said, considering the matter, ‘why don’t you move to somewhere where you can go to night school? If you’ve got a job – any job’ll do really – you can make a start like that. And it could lead to something better.’

‘But what?’ Molly had asked gloomily. She had truly felt in those days that nothing she did would ever lead to anything better.

‘Well . . .’ Ruth was beginning to sound just a bit exasperated. ‘The thing is, you can’t always tell where something might lead. But one thing’s for sure: if you don’t do anything, it can’t lead anywhere much, can it?’

Molly couldn’t argue with this logic.

‘What are the things you’re best at – I mean, when you were at school?’

‘I suppose . . . Sums. I always got along all right with those. And the Gorgon did tell me once that I’d come near the top in the tests we did when we joined up.’ Molly blushed with pleasure, recounting this.

‘Did you?’ Ruth turned to her in pleased surprise. ‘You’ve never told me that before!’

‘Yes – she said I’d not done much less well than you and Win.’ Molly was rather enjoying this.

‘Well, I’m blowed – that’s marvellous, Molly! All the more reason for you to get on and do something, instead of just drifting.’

When the last summer season ended Molly had returned to London, on a wave of confidence and determination. She found herself the digs with Mrs Hodgkins and a job in the Cottage Tea Rooms on the Strand. She swallowed her pride and went to see Phoebe Morrison, who helped her find a place where she could do evening classes, and she decided to sign up for shorthand and typing one evening, and a class to improve her arithmetic on another.

‘That’ll keep me busy Tuesdays and Thursdays,’ she said. ‘And I expect there’ll be homework.’ She found she was very nervous. Would she be able to keep up with it? Was she about to make a gigantic fool of herself? But she was also excited: this was a new beginning. Surely she could find some of her old army confidence and make it work? Having the support of some of her old friends helped, too. Ruth wrote and said she was delighted to hear what Molly was up to, and Phoebe Morrison, ever practical, was a great help. They also met up with Win, from time to time.