Couple reminisce on war times

Mary and Michael Mulholland, both 75, sat in Bournemouth’s pleasure gardens today admiring how different and more peaceful their lives are now.

When asked to describe their lives in three words, “Good, happy, and eventful” sprung to mind. Having been married for fifty-three years the pair have had their fair share of eventful life experiences.

The one that stands out most for Michael is one of his earliest memories, when he was evacuated from London in 1940 at only four years of age.

“It is a very vague memory. I remember we got evacuated by schools, we were lined up and a family had to pick which boy they wanted. I didn’t really know what was going on.”

Michael claimed living in Brighton was very different to being in London.

There was less worry of bombs hitting the coast, but he was concerned for his other three brothers who were evacuated separately. He had very little contact with his parents but spoke highly of his host family saying, “they were very good to me”.

He spoke about a letter his mother received from his host family requesting whether it would be possible for them to adopt him if his parents died, however his birth mother strongly disagreed. Michael stayed in close contact with his host mother upon returning home in 1943 until she later died in 1965. Having no children of her own she decided to leave her house to Michael and his wife Mary.

“She was a lovely woman, she was very kind and generous. It was like having a second family"

A day in the life of... Sophie Marsden

Sophie Marsden, 18, on her typical day during the summer term, with no worries and no more studying its time for her to earn some money and have even more fun spending it.

“I’m one of those geeky drivers everyone laughs at”

My usual morning consists of being woken up by the annoying whirr of my mum vacuuming the entire house. She strangely loves to clean ridiculously early in the morning, so usually with a groan I look at the clock and realise that I’m not meant to be up for at least another hour. After screaming for her to turn off the incessant noise and her persisting, I usually crawl to the kitchen still half asleep and turn on the kettle. I’m a complete and utter coffee girl (with two sugars of course) and without my coffee fix I can barely function.

  My monster of a little sister Chloe who’s 14 rarely ever rises before 1pm. I don’t know how she sleeps for so long. I often find it amusing to go and jump on her around 11, surprisingly she's never too impressed and grumpily insists on me leaving. She has always been the lazy one, I remember one Christmas morning I was whizzing around excitedly unwrapping presents whilst she moaned that she wanted to go back to sleep. We are extremely close and always have been. Driving our parents crazy we would trash the house with toys, play dress up, be princesses and make dens. Nothings really changed we are both still annoyingly immature when we are together, however now she plays dress up in my clothes.

 Ok, I admit it, I’m a Facebook addict, and I just can’t help but be nosey. Its scary how much you can find out about people from their Facebook profile. Unfortunately I'm never really that popular and I only ever get more than 10 notifications on my birthday. Despite this however it is amazing how much time I still manage to waste. After spending most of the morning procrastinating in my PJ’s, I usually shove on a pair of skinny jeans or leggings with a nice top. I love throwing an outfit together, with endless layering in the winter and pretty strapless tops for the summer. It especially helps that I have a mountain of clothes to choose from.

 The 50% discount I get from working in Newlook means I have completely lost control of my shopping obsession; I have an extreme weakness for shoes. One of my goals in life is to strut down 5^th Avenue in a pair of Jimmy Choos. A girl can dream. I have to work on most days, driving there in my mum’s Nissan Micra, which she insists on calling “Bubbles” (I have to admit it does look like a bubble.) I’m one of those geeky drivers everyone laughs at. I can’t resist turning up my radio and belting “Nothing on you baby” at the top of my lungs. There’s a mix of guys and girls at work so it’s always entertaining to join in on the banter. It’s usually quite busy on the shop floor though so I have to do a billion things at once. Plus you always get that one customer that is never satisfied. Who sends you on countless errands to then turn around and say, “hmm... I'll think about it”. It is a pet hate of mine but we usually just laugh about it.

 On the drive home I especially look forward to a hot dinner that is usually waiting for me. You can’t beat my mum’s spaghetti; I've even learnt the recipe so that I'll never be without it. I do feel sorry for my dad sometimes though; with three women in the house he has to listen to a lot of girl talk and we take over the TV a lot. Luckily he doesn’t mind watching ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘90210’ too much. Although I am also pretty clued up on the MotoGP thanks to his annoying fixation with motorbikes. I am never stepping foot on his Kawasaki ever again, it terrifies me.

I’m a huge “fidgetbum” as my parents call me; I find it hard to sit still for long. They also think I've become nocturnal, as it’s rare that I go to bed before 1AM.  My friends come and kidnap me, taking up all of the rest of my spare time. I think we make everybody’s heads hurt with our nattering. When I eventually get into bed it’s great just to melt into a deep sleep and wonder what is in store for tomorrow.