Searching for My Daughter: Absolutely heartbreaking and totally unputdownable WW2 historical fiction by Liz Trenow

Author:Liz Trenow [Trenow, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803143620
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

20

Baby Hans – named after Rosa’s father – was born on 27 May 1940, just as thousands of troops from the British Expeditionary Force were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk by a ragtag flotilla of fishing boats, barges and paddle steamers.

News of these alarming events passed Rosa by in the haze of new motherhood. She’d had to give up her job, of course, but that seemed a small sacrifice for the gift of the beautiful little boy with whom she’d fallen in love from the very first instant.

Mrs Tanner managed to negotiate for them to rent a slightly larger set of rooms on the first floor of the building next door. They moved in when Rosa returned from the maternity hospital, a week after the birth. It was hardly luxurious, and well overdue for a lick of paint and some new carpets, but it had a separate bedroom, a small kitchenette off the living room and, most exciting of all, their own bathroom. A terrifying gas geyser spat scalding water into the basin or the tiny tub, depending on which way you aimed the spout. The shared toilet was one floor down. Baby Hans was dressed almost entirely in second-hand clothes donated by Mrs Tanner’s friends and neighbours; they found a broken pram in the street and Daniel fixed the wheel so that it worked almost perfectly.

From the start, the baby’s thick shock of brown hair prompted everyone to remark that he was the spit of his father, and Daniel could not have been more proud. Not that he spent much time with the boy. Work at the factory was busier than ever, with three shifts now operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Daniel was promoted to floor supervisor, which meant he was often required to be there for up to twelve hours a day, sometimes even at weekends. He was exempt from conscription, for which they were both grateful.

As the weeks and months passed, Rosa developed a new level of affection and respect for her husband, especially when she saw him responding to his son with surprising tenderness. But the exhaustion of new motherhood and the increasing demands of Daniel’s work schedule began to put a strain on the marriage once more.

When the Blitz began, they considered moving out of London, but Daniel wanted to stay within reach of the factory. The work had given him a new purpose in life, not to mention a decent income for once. And Rosa had come to depend on Mrs Tanner, who refused to be cowed even when German bombs fell close by, destroying houses in neighbouring streets.

They dreaded the ‘Moaning Minnie’ air-raid sirens warning of night-time bombing raids, which meant decamping to the crowded and dingy depths of the local Tube station. Hans was a fractious child, picking up on his parents’ anxiety, and it was always a struggle to keep him from disturbing the sleeping throngs around them on the platform.

‘What a sorry welcome for the poor little laddie,’ people would comment, tutting and shaking their heads.

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