Saturday 24 October 2009

Be Like Dad, Keep Mum!

So ran the Wartime slogan about not discussing the War Effort

ww2 poster

Stan & HildaHere's a picture of my Mum and Dad - taken during WW2, when they were engaged. What is significant is that this is the time when my Mum was involved in Codebreaking at Bletchley Park - although Dad didn't know that then

This week, Gordon Brown has honoured some of the BP team [see the BBC website here] but it seems that the awards are only going to those who are still alive [there is talk of a Roll of Honour listing deceased codebreakers]

How I should have loved to have talked with my Mum about what she did - but she refused to discuss it at all, other than admit she had been transferred from her job in the Foreign Office to the BP staff.

But I am grateful for all the things she did talk to me about - she was a wise, and spiritual woman, who knew her Bible really well, and had a real pastoral heart. She had her priorities right, and knew the secret of true JOY was getting things in the right order - Jesus, Others, Yourself.

She may have kept the Enigma thing a secret for nearly fifty years until her death - but she was completely open about her faith in Jesus, and shared God's love with everyone she met.

She was a Mum to be proud of!

5 comments:

  1. Wow I find the whole code breaking thing fascinating and can imagine the frustration you must have had when your mum wouldn't talk (is that where you get your love of Maths?)
    I'm thinking of doing a project on cryptography with my year 8s and we will probably talk about Enigma in that.

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  2. Both my parents were good with figures [and good with words too] and yes, I DID find it frustrating - I found out when I was 12, but she refused to say anything about her work. The CIA website has some lesson plan ideas about codebreaking. But it was my Mum the Brits not the Yanks who cracked Enigma, whatever the CIA say!

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  3. Your mum sounds like an amazing woman. Fascinating post!

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  4. She sounds wonderful!

    My Dad is hoping to visit Bletchley soon, he loves all that code breaking stuff!

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  5. My grandfather was a spy (but not a codebreaker) during WWII and would never talk about it. Frustrating!

    Your mother sounds fascinating!

    frances

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