We’re all just waiting for an official announcement from the Prime Minister, but plans for the celebrations are starting already.’ ‘That’s all very well,’ Edie frowned, ‘but when are they all coming home? That’s what I want to know.’ ‘I expect Irene and Tommy will be the first to come back. There’s no need for them to stay in the countryside any longer, is there? I can’t wait to see our Tommy. Fancy, he’s going to school already, so Irene said in her last letter. And your Reggie will have grown too. He’ll be school-leaving age now, won’t he? You can hardly credit it, can you?’ ‘It’s been a long time,’ Edie sighed. ‘I just wish we’d been able to see them more often, but it was always difficult, wasn’t it, even though they were only a few miles away?’ Lil said nothing. The war had made it even harder for her to eke out her earnings; she hadn’t been able to afford many jaunts into the countryside. ‘But I’ll tell you summat, Lil.
