“HAS LOST THEM ALL.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 28 (Supplement)

“HAS LOST THEM ALL.”

Woman’s Many Poignant Memories. There is probably no woman in Britain who lives on memories so poignant as Mrs 4 Nanny ” Hartfield, whose home is in Lancing Road, Croydon. Mrs Hartfield has had two husbands and twenty-two sons. She has lost them all. Now, at the age of seventy-nine, she lives alone. “ Ten of my boys were killed during the war,” she said. “Two of them were twins—l have had two lots of twins—and they were killed almost simultaneously. “ Three were killed while trying to stop a runaway horse, and the other nine died from various illnesses. “I have been married twice. Both my husbands have died. I do not complain. I want for nothing, and I am always happy. I know that my losses have been God’s will.” Mrs Hartfield is kept happy by the serene faith that shines from her brown ‘eyes and an absolute belief in an ultimate reunion with her dear ones. Her seventy-nine years have touched her with gentle fingers; there are only a few streaks of grey in her abundant black hair, and her small face is rosv as an ailtumn apple. 4 , “ M 3 r sons were all married,” she said. Now my daughters-in-law have all married again and gone abroad to Africa, Australia and Canada. I’m not sure how many grandchildren I have now, but I think it is about thirty.” All Six-footers. She picked up a photograph of a bonny, blue-eyed baby. “This little chap, who arrived last year, made me a great-grandmother,” she said. Her pride in the picture was charming to watch. Although she is so small, her sons were all six feet tall. Some of them would be middleaged men now,” she said. “ I remember them all perfectly. When I see them again, I shall know them instantly. “No, I will not have my photograph taken. I have only once had a picture ot myself made, and Lionel, my second eldest son, took it to France with him. When he was found dead on the battlefield the picture was crumpled in his hand. I have never been photographed since, and I never will.” Mrs Hartfield still goes out to do a day s work. When she comes home she does her housework. The only thing I can’t do now is washing clothes,” she admitted. “ I can scrub a floor and clean a house as well as ever. I trust in God all the time and I am always happy. All my neighbours are unfailingly kind to me, and I have friends all over the world who write to me and send me birthday and Christmas wishes. I live happy in my memories and in my hope.”