Evacuee's story told at reunion

Ethel Carty grew up in Clydach after being evacuated

"Scared, unwanted and alone" - children evacuated to Wales at the start of World War II were safe from bombs, but on the verge of an emotional ordeal.

Ethel Carty, 71, was just seven years old when she left Middlesex and was sent to Clydach in the Swansea Valley.

She was one of several evacuees reunited at a special St David's Day event organised at the Museum of Welsh Life in Cardiff on Tuesday.

She described how she was taken to the Swansea Valley, and ended up staying.

"My father decided I would be evacuated," she said.

"My mother took me to the school, with my gas mask on my shoulder, a bottle of lemonade and some sandwiches, and left me there.

"I stood on Paddington station - I was as near to tears as you could get.

I just felt happy - there was no idea of me going home because I knew there was nowhere to go home to Ethel Carty

"I bit my lip until it bled because I didn't want to show anyone - I wanted to be brave.

"Somebody said 'You are going to be evacuated to Wales' - it could have been the other side of the Atlantic - I didn't know where Wales was.

"I felt so alone and unwanted. It's indescribable - it's a fear you are not wanted - your mother and father getting rid of you."

With her brother evacuated to north Wales, she was dropped in Clydach on her own, and was moved between several homes before being taken in by Frank and Florrie Elt.

"I was so pleased - it was a lovely home they had and they didn't have any children," she said.

'Good life'

Mrs Carty's mother and father separated shortly after she was evacuated and, although both came to try to take her to live with them after the war ended, she never went back.

"I loved it here - I never wanted to go home," she said.

"Somehow or other, I managed to persuade my father.

"I stayed until I was 22 until I got married, and my foster father gave me away.

Children were sent from major towns and cities as the war began

"I just felt happy - there was no idea of me going home because I knew there was nowhere to go home to.

"My father had my brother back and he put him in the Jewish orphanage."

Looking back, she said she had been sad and unhappy when her parents sent her away, but she did not feel any bitterness.

"I have had a good life with my foster parents and a good marriage with my husband," she said.

"If I had stayed, I might not be here - we lived right in the heart of London in the middle of the bombing."

And she kept up strong bonds with her foster parents, right up until they passed away.

"I helped her nurse my foster father till he died, then she became ill when she was 90 and we had her to live with us," he said.

"She was bedridden for ages - she took her last breath with me.

"I feel I did my bit in return for what she did for me."

The Museum of Welsh Life is holding a series of events throughout 2005 remembering life on the Home Front in Wales during WWII.