Nigel, I'm just reading and re-reading, I can't decide which appeals to me most, all stir something in me and all take me to the time I lived in London. Of course not through WW11 but instead to the times of the IRA.

I marvel at how calm we were, how we accepted the lockins wherever & whenever they occurred, oft at the hairdresser, the supermarket, the corner store & even home (St James diagonally opposite New Scotland Yard on one side & directly opposite head quarters for London Underground) walking past Debenhams once, looking ahead my husband & I hand in hand, wondering why all was so quiet on what had moments before been a busy day & to see the wildly gesticulating policewoman at the end of the lane, nearing her to hear bomb threat, run, take cover here in - a lock-in within a pub, DB & I taking it in our stride, daily occurrences & we in our jobs both trained what to do in the event of receiving the dreaded call.

I digress, your words of others have drawn from me emotions I thought long gone, how can one miss what was a harrowing time, & yet I do, I miss those days & the life we lead. I miss how calm we all were despite the terror we openly lived in. Once while I was the Duty Manager - the telephonist receiving the call & following our checklist to the letter, call metropolitan police and New Scotland Yard, we the staff, trained, we know the building, the furniture, the layout, to conduct the searches for anything suspicious & if found immediately quarantine & isolate the area, initiate evacuation & await the bomb squad.

In those days Nigel, we knew what we were doing, we went about our jobs as they even report now, Londoners are not phased, we've lived through much. Today, yesterday, & tomorrow much will be the same, and yet not.

I'm drawn perhaps to drunkle, our cousin never laughed, she lived through what I know only to well, what goes on behind closed doors, so different to what those on the outside looking in see, they see the funniness, the hilarity in moments, not the humiliation, sorrow & heartbreak.

Every poem though elicits thoughts of past & present. I can't help but wonder what today's poems will evoke 25-50 yrs down the track. Once again Nigel I thank you for transporting me beyond the moment I'm in. I truly hope your family & friends appreciate the man in their midst who with the will to commit can change the passage of ones thought. It's a gift beyond treasure, shared freely.