EIGHTEEN CHILDREN

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21037, 13 February 1940, Page 3

EIGHTEEN CHILDREN

THE QUEEN S COMPLIMENT Mrs Bridge, of Birdham, near Chichester, who has 18 children to care for, seven of her own and 11 young evacuees, had a surprise visitor recently, states the London Daily Mail. Her visitor was Queen Elizabeth. "I think you are wonderful to look aAer so many children,” the Queen said to her. "How do you do it?” And these are some of the things Mrs Bridges told the Queen: She gets up at 5 o’clock every morning and begins preparing 18 breakfasts of porridge and milk. When the children are off to school or playing, she does her housework, then sets out to shop for 18 healthy appetites. One of her orders is for 6b pints of milk a week. In the evening, between sewing and mending, she sees that some of the children do their homework quietly in one room while she organises games for the others elsewhere. Every other night she gives all the children a hot bath. And in her spare tirae she is rehearsing them in a play they are going to give. Now you understand why the Queen called Mrs Bridges, wife of an electrical engineer in the Navy, “a wonderful woman.”