Eileen Mary “Didi” Nearne was born in London on March 15 1921 into a large Anglo-Spanish family which moved to France during the interwar years; she was thus brought up speaking French. When France fell the Nearnes fled through Spain, eventually arriving in England in mid-1942. Eileen Nearne and her older sister, Jacqueline, joined the FANY, but their language skills were highly prized and later they and their brother, Francis, were recruited by SOE.
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On July 21 1944, however, she was arrested. Despite prolonged and brutal interrogation she maintained her cover that she was a girl from the south looking for work who had been asked to send messages on behalf of a businessman. Didi Nearne was subjected to water torture, being held face down in a cold bath until she nearly drowned, but did not crack.
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Of her time as an agent, she told one interviewer: “It was a life in the shadows, but I think I was suited for it. I could be hard and secret, I could be lonely, I could be independent, but I wasn’t bored. I liked the work. After the war, I missed it.”
It Gets Better
Because whether you’re gay or straight, it does get better.
Frustratingly, I ordered these a year ago AND I wasn’t wearing these for most of the summer.
That’s it for you Eastland. No more shoe purchases from me.
Sadly, I’m kinda stuck, because I can’t order shoes on-line (I have high arches, so I have a hard time finding comfortable shoes).
Since we could, we got out of town during the football game, with a visit to Brian & Stacie and Jules.
I shot more than 500 pictures, but also spent time talking and relaxing and generally having a nice time.
Gotta start ’em young. She’s going to be a medical or science officer.
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My pirate name is: Black Ethel Bonney
Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate’s life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.
Here be a very nice English t’ Pirate translator page
The weather this weekend was beautiful, and when we stopped at the Cut on 68, you could see the first leaves just starting to change color.
It’s time for word association! Today’s word is: nurse
No?
Well…. hmmm….
Got any good jokes?
In addition to spending time with Grandmom this past weekend, we also got to spend some time with Lily.
And really, who would not want to spend time with such a cutie?
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This weekend we spent visiting my grandmother. We also had a family meeting regarding her care, and since it didn’t come up during, after the meeting I sat down and talked with my grandmother.
I told her that it was just not possible for her to come back to Morgantown to live, because I simply cannot provide her with the level of care she deserves.
For the past several months we’ve all been in a sort of limbo: she has been with my aunt while she recovers but it wasn’t clear if she would–or even could–come back to live with us in Morgantown. Physically, she has been incapable of returning here, not just because of the long car drive, but because she is currently using a wheelchair part of the time, which will never fit through the doorways in my house. And as much as she loves my house and how cozy it is, the bathroom is not handicapped accessible and has always been a problem for her.
The talk was very hard for me–I was afraid she would think that I didn’t want her to live with me anymore, but she did understand that she needs a greater level of care than she did before I broke my ankle and she broke her leg, and unfortunately, Michael and I are incapable of giving her the support and care she is receiving at my aunt’s house.
I didn’t want to have that discussion, but it was necessary and important for both her well-being and mine, and it was unfair to everyone to leave the situation unsettled and unclear.
Although I feel a sense of grief that she will not longer be living with us, and I will no longer get to see her every day, and to laugh at her when she lectured Kit, I will be seeing her on a regular basis (once or twice a month) and who knows, we might even take Kit with us during our next visit.
