WARTIME BRIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 296, 13 December 1940, Page 13

WARTIME BRIDE.

" GLAD ABOUT IT." HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. Some older people have gazed at me. with that look in their eyes which means; "Poor thing, what a time to start married life—with a war 011 ami life so uncertain, too!" writes a l'Jl'l bride in an Knglish paper. .but- my airman husband and i don't want their pity. We are thrilled and happy to be starting our life together in this exciting 1940. l>ife to-day is real: honest. All nasty little social snobbishnc^fes are washed out; and we know where we are, wlie.ie we're going. Fven our wedding day was a deeper experience than it would have bee.ll in peacetime. If we had had a peacetime wedding I'd have been worried to divath with thought* of flowers, clothes and furniture. There would have been no time to think of my husband; I'd have Imhmi all the time, at dressmakers and

Iteauty sho|is

Then, on the day itself, I'd have been nothing but a dummy, dressed up for everybody to stare at and criticise. 1 know, because these, are the sort of weddings most of my friends had. With girls gossiping and being catty round palms at the wedding breakfast.

My wedding w as different

The people who were there we.re our truest, friends; there because they wanted ta «ae us happy together, not to stare and gliess tlie cost of everything. I wofe a suit and a silly little hat. and my flowers cost me three and sixpence; but I am sure no bride.'s heart beat faster with joy than mine. Too Much Time. In the bad old peacetime days young wives were often a nuisance to themselves and everybody else. They had too much time on their hands. There is no danger of that to-day. I have my war work; and 1 just live for the hours mv husband gets leave.

I don't have to kill time with bridge, riding and womanish talk that my older friends did. Life sweeps on at such a pace that I have a job to keep up with it.

I have an anchor. When there is danger, as there is in all our lives now. I feel it giving me courage. We won't let the men down. Men to-day don't, want wilting violets needing continual support; they want women who can rtjoulder some responsibilities themselves.

I can't fly with my husband; I can't share, his dangers. Sometimes I wish 1 could. But in imagination I can. There are occasions when f feel like one of the wives in the old liold Hush days; those women who drove the covered wagon, or reloaded the rifles while their men fired at the enemy,

It will do some of us good to be. in this Battle of Britain, as we are. It seemed very easy to me to talk about "our gallant boys" and "our brave lads" in "Flanders fields'* and that sort of thing; but it was <|uit<\ a different matter to be "in the soup" with them.

Life to-day brings out. the true characters of all of us. And I'll wager we've all had a few surprises. I know I have.

Some of the little mouse women have shown up to far greater advantage than the women who always had so much to say. Chance For Success. Yes. I think our marriage is more likely to lie a success than a marriage in peacetime. We have had to start off without all t'lie lovely things of peace that young couples looked upon as their right—and ne.vcr stopped to appreciate. We didn't have a honeymoon. No Madeira sunshine or Venetian nights for us. Just one nijjht at a West End hotel with the sirens screaming outside —and lioinbs very close.

That tiny cottage, that is in the hearts of all young couples will have to stay in our hearts till the war is over; but there's nothing to stop us keeping our weather eve open for it even now. We did sco one in a little Sussex village the other day ....

And we'll have it. We'll grow flowers and cut the little blanket lawn, and lie in the sun. and my man will lose that taut look that is always in his eyes now.

We don't even have the. joy now of the knowledge of each other's company; but we're not grousing; we know all in good time we shall have these things.