No Choice

by Su Laws Baccino

Early on September 30, 1940, a Spitfire pilot wrote to his wife, This time next week it will all be over. He died that afternoon. This was my father, he was referring to my birth – not his death, we hope; his letter arrived two days after he fell from the sky. My mother went into shock and I pushed my way into this world two weeks later. A few days on and my uncle committed suicide, unable to come to terms with what he’d seen on the battlefield; he lay down on the beach as the tide came in and drowned in a few inches of water. A family floored, but not for long – this was war and they fought back.

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Su Laws Baccino, after a lifetime of traveling, retired to her roots and now lives on the Suffolk coast with her two dogs and a cat. She describes herself as "a rebel turned eccentric."