During WW2 my parents had a wallpaper and paint shop in Mill Hill Blackburn and Endy, who was a manager of a paper mill used to call into the shop and sell blackout paper to my dad. I remember him calling at the shop even though I was only 6 years old at the time. My dad would measure up the paper and sell it in the shop, he also went out and sold blackout paper at the local markets. He would also demonstrate to customers how to make a roller blind with a brush steel, a cotton reel and string!

In 1943 my dad died aged 45. At this time my Uncle Tom was the landlord of the Black Bull pub https://g.co/kgs/qgZXNY in Blackburn. (It still thrives today as a micro brewey) Endy was a customer there and his wife had passed away recently. My mum and Endy began to meet up at the pub, a friendship blossomed and they married a couple of years later.