Much as Ada wanted to see Sybil, she thought that it was best to stay out of the way.

‘There’s quite enough going on at the moment without my sticking my nose in,’ she joked. ‘But I might pop by later for a brief visit.’

Before she left, Sister Mary Paul gave Ada a little apple turnover she had made especially for her and the end of a loaf of freshly baked bread.

‘To keep your strength up,’ she said tenderly, as she bid her favourite girl goodbye.

After their emotional family reunion, the mood in the Pickles family settled down a bit, and Rosie was able to cradle her two children in her arms.

‘What possessed you to run away?’ she finally asked.

Sally by her side wriggled uncomfortably. ‘I ran after Ronnie when he ran away without me,’ she tried to explain.

Turning to her skinny son, who was lying stiffly at her side, Rosie said softly, ‘So it was your idea, Ronnie?’

Guilty Ronnie averted his eyes. ‘I wanted to find our dad.’

‘Your dad’s fighting for his country!’ Rosie cried. ‘What made you think he would be in London?’

With his cheeks burning bright red, Ronnie blurted out the truth. ‘The big lads in the school playground said that soldiers were coming home to check out how their families were coping.’

‘That’s just wishful thinking, lovie,’ Rosie said, as she stroked his untidy hair. ‘Men get shot for desertion of their posts. How on earth did you think that your dad, fighting behind enemy lines, could sneak off and pay us a visit?’

Looking mortified, poor confused Ronnie started to cry. ‘Because I wanted it – I believed in it because I miss my dad!’

‘Sweetheart, we all miss Dad,’ Rosie confessed.

‘Why doesn’t he write to tell us where he is?’ Ronnie wailed. ‘It’s been so long since he left, how do we know he’s not dead already?’

Though her son was, in fact, voicing her own worst fears, Rosie answered firmly. ‘I won’t lie and tell you that I’m not worried too, but there’s a war on: there are thousands of people in the same boat. We have to do our bit, son; we can fight Hitler in other ways. We can stay strong and brave and pray for peace and that Dad will come home to us safe and sound one day soon.’

The grief and terror he had been bottling up inside for months on end spilt its banks, and Ronnie, really just a frightened little boy, poured out all his worries. Knowing he needed to get an enormous load off his chest, Rosie just held him until his sobs subsided.

‘Please don’t ever leave me again, son,’ she implored. ‘We must stay together as a family; you and Sal are all I’ve got now.’