Christina Battley

 Christina Winifred Battley sat on the front porch looking over her husband Colin’s eleven hundred acre farm,near Pio Pio, crying, wondering if her family members would ever return from the war. It was 1939, she was 33 and had just had a depressing farewell to thousands of men (including Colin) going off to fight in Italy. Christina was now left with the responsibility of looking after the farm, her eight children and cleaning the house. Tom her oldest child came up for comfort.

“Do you think that daddy will ever return mummy?” he sobbed, “ I hope he does because you can’t look after all of us children, because you have got Heather, Alan, Barbara and Dorothy. I don’t think that you will cope mum! You’ve also got Betty, Jack and Barry. I’m really worried mum, I really am!” 

Tom’s voice was all shaky and as he looked at Christina. Some tears trickled down from his hazel green eyes, that looked like his mothers, Tom’s curly blonde hair so much like his mothers flowed in the wind as he looked at his mum and said wiping away his tears, 

“You’d better get out of your good clothes mum!” By good clothes he meant Christina’s favourite purple flowery dress, unlike her normal rags tied back with a piece of string, as they were a very poor family. Tom walked away muttering,

“Daddy, Uncles Alex, Jeremy and Joseph, Aunties Dianne, Alexandra and Mary all gone!”

“Honey,” Christina called, “ you must understand, we’re all heart broken.”

This comment Christina just said sent her back into more sparkly, dripping tears. Her curly blonde hair blowed in the wind as she thought about her friends and how they were coping, Rose, Arabella, Bella and Anne-Marie because they had all sent family members off to war or had family members in other parts of the world where war was happening. As Christina got up, she stumbled and wondered how she would look after the family, as they were very poor. The postie boy rode past and and delivered the days mail. Christina walked down the steep driveway to the mail box and pulled out the mail. It was a letter saying that rationing was going to be put into place and that they had to go and get a book of coupons one for each of the family on the coming Monday. Christina smiled and walked back up the driveway and into the house.

About three years later Christina was dumbstruct to see a telegram boy standing at her door. The telegram boy was there to say that Colin, Alex, Jeremy and Mary had all died at a bombing attack at sea. Christina was never the same again - EVER!! (Even up until her death in 2005 at the age of 99).  

By Petra, year 6, 2010