As always, I can’t begin to tell you how much I am missing you, Daisy and Thomas. I pray that you are all safe and well. It’s as hot as hell here, no pleasure at all, I’m afraid when I’m in the operating theatres all day …

The next few lines were heavily censored, and Kathy sighed with frustration as she read on.

Have the twins started school yet? I know sometimes the letters take a long time to reach you so I am surmising that they will have by now. At school! It’s hard to take in, they’re growing so quickly.

The next part of the letter had been deleted too but continued further down the page.

I can hardly wait for this war to be over now. It seems to be going on forever, but when at last it is over, we will be together for always and I cannot wait. It seems so long since I’ve seen you, but you are the first person I think of every morning when I wake and the last one I think of before I sleep – not that I get much of that. We are losing so many young men daily. It breaks my heart that although myself and the other doctors do our best some are beyond help. It’s the noise that is the worst, the constant sound of gunfire and …

Kathy sighed with frustration as she saw that the censor had been at work yet again. And then finally he ended:

Stay strong, my love, this war cannot go on forever. Take good care of yourself and the children. Thinking of coming home to you is all that is keeping me going now,

With all my love

David xxxx

As Kathy placed the letter back in the envelope there were tears in her eyes. David sounded tired, she thought worriedly, but then she supposed he would be. From previous letters he had written she knew that sometimes he had to stand in the operating theatre for up to eighteen hours a day and the terrible injuries he saw would be enough to get anyone down.

She shuddered to think of it and prayed David would stay strong enough to cope with all he had to deal with. In some ways she wished that she could have joined him, but then she would never be able to bring herself to leave the children so, for now, she would have to settle for doing what she could in the local hospital.

The children were in a happy mood when Kathy picked them up from school later that day.

‘We’s had great fun,’ Daisy told her animatedly. ‘An’ I’s done you a picture. It’s in my bag an’ I’ll give it you when we get home.’