And then there was Arthur William Dewing.
On the last day of Europe’s six year war, or Victory in Europe Day, VE-Day, May 8th 1945, I met a 17 year old girl from the BBC at a VE-Day dance. I was 18 and in my fresh-man year studying Chemical Engineering at London’s Imperial College. Her name was Doris Dewing and we went together for about a year and broke up about February 1946. During this time, Doris invited me to her home and I met Mr. and Mrs. Dewing for the first time. Mrs. Dewing cooked meals for me and when I first met Mr. Dewing, he was hunched up in the corner of the room, right next to the radio listening to the race-track results. He alternated between a happy “Yeah” and some long “Sh” word that he never finished. Continue reading