BackStory Episode 7

Morpho Azul Butterfly image from Needpix.com

The picture above is of the turquoise Morpho butterfly.  In parts of Costa Rica, it is known as a wish-granter, and when Marguerite sees it, she makes more than one.

As you know from reading the first two entries of ‘BackStory’ (Marguerite and Maude, and Two Young Lads), Maude is a fictional character.  Her life in wartime England is being spent in the same places that I know Will Hall, my father, lived during this time.

Now in Episode 7, Maude meets young Eileen.  Eileen grew up to marry Ronnie, Will’s brother, and her stories were told to me by her future daughter, my cousin Elaine.  The stories about Eileen and her family’s experiences in this episode are true.

The long-planned evacuation of British children to the countryside, as well as to other parts of the British Empire, in anticipation of aerial bombing, was code-named “Operation Pied Piper”; however, the name was not publicized due to the connotation of the story and what happened to the children of that tale.

I do know that Will was evacuated to north Wales, and Ronnie to his aunt and uncle’s home, but there is very little detail that my family knows of what their experiences were like.  I have Maude and Eula evacuated to North Wales, to a farm, and I will introduce some details of farm life during the war in the next episode.

The town that Maude mentions she wishes they could go to, with the very long name, is:

Llan fair pwll gwyngyll gogery chwyrn drobwll llanty silio gogogoch.   

Literally translated, it means:  The church of St. Maary of the pool of the white hazels near to the fierce whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio of the red cave.