Son's trip from Canada to remember mum at Blitz anniversary
One of the people at tomorrow's Blitz anniversary event has travelled from his home in Canada to remember his mum who died in the city over 70 years ago.
André Masters, of Victoria, Canada, thought there were no photos of his mother until a recent discovery, and now he has had a special headstone made to make sure she is remembered.
He said: "I came to Coventry from Canada on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary and to view the headstone we have erected for my mother.
"At the age of four I was living with my mother, Lilian, and two-year-old sister, Jacqueline, near the city centre. Our mother died in August 1942 and no photos of her remained until a recent find.
"In research of hundreds of blitz photos we came across a woman, recognisable to us as my mother Lilian, apparently taken later in the day after the bombing. I am at her side and she is holding my sister in her arms.
"She was six months pregnant with our brother John at the time but obviously malnourished as she was probably making sure we were well fed. Also we were poor and she wore no gloves despite it being winter. We lived on Bramble Street then.
"She could not cope with a third child and my brother, now deceased, had to be given up for adoption. My sister and I were with her until at least October 1941, and later she developed hepatitis from which she died. By then my sister and I had been evacuated to the village of Wormleighton.
"From there we were in different foster homes in and around Coventry and our main saviour was our Uruguayan grandmother Matilda Masters (formerly Diaz) who tried to arrange what might be best for us, and at one time during the war was said to have chauffeured the Mayor of Coventry in 1941.
"Later I lived with her from the age of 9 to 17.
"My sister always thought she was never loved or wanted as a child, especially as all she can remember is the various foster homes she was in after Wormleighton. Now we know that our mother loved us.
"When the photo of my mother was first seen by my daughter and me we were moved by her demeanour in the face of such adversity. There she stands; strong, unwavering and gazing through the misty veil of time into the future. Her eyes focus on ours as if to say 'I am not lost, I am just waiting for you to find me.'
"My granddaughter named her baby girl, Lilian.
"I have now had a headstone made for her grave, showing the blitz photos."