Don’t Make Hasty Judgments - Part Two 

Spirit (June):  Hello.

I’ll get straight on with my story.

Remember that we got up to the second world war, with two characters that were not liked – Doris and George. They appeared to be dirty, disreputable, and uncouth, everything that I had been brought up, (and many of us had been brought up), to look down on.

And then as I said, came the war. Now for a considerable period of time it didn’t worry people in London, in fact it seemed as if it was just a joke. We saw the soldiers leaving, saw planes a bit, we didn’t seem to have many and none seemed to come near us… and then suddenly it really started.

Fortunately in the meantime, according to the streets we lived in, we were allocated areas for shelter. Many people had built their own, or had worked out places in their homes where they would possibly be safe, and so it started.

It happened many times that you came out from your shelter, and you would go to your street and your home wouldn’t be there. Perhaps one side of the house would be gone, but all the windows on the rest of it would still be whole. I found that incredible but it did happen – not every time of course.

And then we started getting people hurt, people buried, people killed. So each night we’d go down to the shelters, we’d take a pillow and a thermos flask and we’d each have our own spot, and it got to the stage where woe betide if anyone got in your spot. It became a village, and there was fun too at times.

Now those two people we spoke about, wanted to come into our shelter… well they weren’t made welcome and they went away. And at this stage the bombing got worse, and then we had a policeman come one night who was escorting one of our group. She had survived but she had been buried under, or jammed under, her staircase for three hours. She could hear voices and she knew, that they knew that she was there, but it was horrifying for her except for one thing… someone was holding her hand, just patting it and squeezing it. She thought it was one of the people who were digging trying to get her out, and once she could see the people, the person who had comforted her for some hours moved off. There were many tales similar to this coming into the shelter.

Another person had been buried up to his neck in rubble, and it was just black because the dust was all over his face.  He couldn’t open his eyes because the dust would get in, but someone put a mug to his lips.  It was a shandy, a very refreshing drink. He didn’t know who the person was, but was very grateful for it.

There was another child who came. Her arm was very professionally put into a sling made out of a woman’s petticoat, very professional.

Those are just three examples that I can remember. This type of thing was happening all the time, not just in our shelter, but we’d hear of it from others, they’d talk during the day, “I had an experience last night” and then they’d tell you.

Everyone began to wonder… was it an angel.  It seemed so strange that no one ever knew who it was, that perhaps bandaged you up, gave you a drink, or just comforted you.

And then another time, one of the men who was on fire watch came down and asked, “Where’s Doris?”

Well we had two Doris’s so they stood up. “No loves, not you. It’s the Doris who helps us.” Oh we didn’t know who that was. “Oh, a pity.  She is needed to comfort someone. We’ve got a fire raging up in the top of a house and there’s someone in the basement. It’s going to be touch and go, but Doris would be there if we could find her”. We didn’t know any other Doris like that, that we could think of that is, that would be a comforter.

And then there was this man also, who was doing wonderful things. The police came and asked for him too one night.  He was needed to talk to someone who was near a bomb which hadn’t gone off, and they needed him to talk to the person so he wouldn’t move.

There were some horrific stories, and then one night who should come in to the shelter but our Doris, but she wasn’t alone. She had her arms around someone, brought her in, settled her in a little vacant space near the entrance and went away. And that person whom she had brought in told us, “What an angel that woman is”.

“We know her in our road” she said, “She’s always there when someone needs help, in fact they’ve even given her a tin helmet to wear, because she goes into such hazardous places. Anything to comfort people, she doesn’t talk, she’s just there”. And then we hear similar things about George.

Well you can imagine how we were feeling and how people in many parts of London (in that area at any rate), were beginning to feel pretty humble, as they woke up to the fact that the two angels, were the two very despised humans. It taught us one thing, and it is something that all of us should remember… don’t be judgmental.  Think, “There but for, well, the grace of God if you like, go I”.

It may be that the person is undisciplined, uncouth, because of their environment, but there is still that flickering, in fact more than a flicker in the case of these two, of a great love of humanity. They can overlook the nastiness that is within us. It made Londoners who knew of this, much better people. We all started to help each other more.

I don’t know what happened to them. I expect that perhaps somewhere, at some time, a building collapsed on them and they died. There is no monument to them, it is just word of mouth, “Do you remember?” And up until a few years ago there were a lot of people who remembered, but of one thing I feel sure, that when they passed over, the people who knew them welcomed them, welcomed them in a way that they’d never had on earth… because those were two people, who could be called ‘Angels’.

They had their faults, who doesn’t?  But we have to learn to overlook those as best we can, to look for the good, and not to be too judgmental, because we are at school, every one of us when here on earth.  I was at school, I still am in a way, and we are learning still, every one of us.

No matter how despicable you find a person, he or she is there for a reason, and they are learning something the same as you are, and the same as all your friends are. We don’t know while we are still on earth, what that person will be when they die. He or she is at school, now, on earth.

And it’s the same… imagine judging a boy who is at school, before we know what he will be like as a man. We change and we develop and then we die, and all this wonderful universe is open to us, until we decide that we need more lessons and so we go to school again. I don’t know whether we go back to earth but I know that we are learning always, because really we have got so much to learn… all the arts… I’m learning to dance properly; I’ve always hopped around a bit; now I’m learning the beauty that can be, in movement. There is just so much to learn, for all eternity.

This was June, and bless you all.

Goodnight.