“I didn’t see him again, I had a crush on him. The other girls also had a crush on him. I wrote to him when I got home. A love letter I guess. I was hopeless, I didn’t know anything but I got accepted. Falling in love, I hadn’t got a clue about what it was all about, I was 21. When he got out of the sanatorium he came to Ashcombe Road. My parents didn’t approve of Derek’s father Jimmy, he looked Jewish. Derek came and met me, he was probably attracted by me, I was probably quite pretty and we had a love affair. Then we became engaged. He kept coming to the house from Purley borrowing his father’s car. His father had a shop there, mending umbrellas."*
They got engaged in 1952, Derek getting his sister's boyfriend, who fortunately worked at Carringtons of Bond Street, to sort out the ring. Ruth wanted something that looked antique with a topaz.
*Quote from Ruth looking back on her life aged 88.
Ref: IMG_5734.JPG