Harlow, the United Kingdom: Centenary Dorothea Barron recalled the wave of relief he felt when he heard that World War II finally had come to an end.
“Thank God he is over,” recalls the veteran of the British Navy thinking.
Eighty years later, the 100 -year -old Spraine, who now teaches Yoga and saw in his big birthday with a celebration flight on a Spitfire combat plane, is among an increasingly restless number of veterans with memories first hand of the war.
It is unknown exactly how many old people from World War II there are in the United Kingdom.
While experts estimate that there are still several thousands, the 80th anniversary of victory on Europe Day, marked on May 8, will be among the last world commemorations of the British war with a substantial veteran presence.
As Britain marked the anniversary with four days of celebrations as of Monday, including military parades, flight pasta and street holidays, said Barron. AFP How he felt heard that the war that had eclipsed his adolescence was over.
The news came as “a launch, a great weight of the shoulders.”
But it also marked an abrupt change for members of the Armed Forces.
“It was ‘keeping the uniform, here are some coupons of clothes, some food coupons, go home.’ And that was all,” said Barron.
At age 20, he did not anticipate how hard life would be in the postwar Britain. It was a “terribly difficult,” said Barron.
“I will not say unhappy, but there were uncertain times. You never knew what I was going to hit you the next day.”
‘Can you feel it?’
Speaking from his home near Harlow, north of London, Barron recalled the years of reconstruction of the postwar period with extraordinary Vim.
She has been teaching Yoga for 60 years, and every Monday celebrates a class near her home.
His flexibility, as evidenced by his descending dog pose, with heels on the floor and perfectly flat back, even impresses his young students.
“Can you feel it at the bottom of your legs?” He asked in a recent class.
“If you want firm tits, that is the pose,” he told her dozen to students aged 20 to 95, not flimered by their groans.
“I feel lovely, relaxed and stretched,” he said as he walked home later.
Spitfire flight
Barron celebrated his centenary in October 2024 flying in a Spitfire, a plane from the Royal Air Force who played a crucial role in the Battle of Great Britain in 1940 against the German Luftwaffe.
“It really was wonderfully exciting,” he said, radiant.
With such energy today, it is easy to imagine Barron’s determination at age 18.
She “desperately” wanted to join the real naval service of women, or Wrens, as they were known.
“We were not going to make the Nazis take over our country,” he said.
But Barron feared it was too short to cut.
“I cheated like crazy and cut cardboard heels to see me taller, and built my hair, I swelled it,” he said.
“I had only five feet two inches (157 centimeters), but I think they saw that I was so interested in becoming a Wren that they thought ‘we will let him pass.”
Barron taught the troops how to communicate using visual signals and Morse code.
And before Normandy lands of day D, it helped try the portable ports of Mulberry, which were towed through the La Mancha Canal and allowed a large number of troops and vehicles to reach France.
But she did not know what the structures were for at that time, and only later realized how they deployed.
“I was quite delighted,” he said. “I thought: ‘Oh, I did something useful then,'”
She planned to mark the victory on Europe Day in the Netherlands for Dutch Liberation Day, before participating in a service in the Westminster Abbey on May 8, which is also attended by the British royal family.
During the war, Barron met her husband Andrew, who was at the Royal Air Force.
They had two daughters, and Barron is now great -grandmother. Andrew died in 2021, and Barron still talks about him with love.
It takes a lot to prevent Barron being cheerful, but he is concerned about current events, especially the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which has let the conflict be unleashed in Europe once more.
“No one wins a war,” he said.
