I HAVE been reading your Yesteryears page with great interest about Burtonwood Air Base, it has brought back many memories. In fact that place changed my life forever.

In 1951 my mother came across an advert in the paper looking for a babysitter for an American family stationed at Burtonwood.

My mother answered the advert for me. I was 17 years old when a knock came on the door from a tall American man.

He introduced himself as Mr Mack, to cut a long story short he asked me to be their babysitter.

I did the job for two years, looking after their three children when they had evenings out.

Finally their time here was up and they had to return to the States.

Before they left my mother asked if they would sponsor me to go and live with them because she thought I would have a better future there.

I followed them over on the Queen Mary during Christmas 1953.

Upon arriving in New York I travelled by bus to Texas.

It didn’t all turn out like I thought, she had me cleaning and polishing floors two hours after I arrived.

They paid me six dollars a week.

Mr Mack came home one day and told me one of the master sergeants on his squadron was leaving the service and buying a café and needed people to work there, so he said I could be a waitress in the evenings. I ended up working seven days a week.

It was at the café I met my future husband, who was stationed at the same base as Mr Mack. By the time I had saved enough tips to come to the UK the man I was going with was sent to another base in Kentucky, so we wrote to each other.

I came back to the UK for three months then went back to Kentucky and was married there, we went on to have two children and spent four years in Alaska.

Sadly the marriage broke down eight years later. When my kids grew up they moved far away from where I lived due to my son’s job and my daughter’s marriage.

I returned to this country a few years ago and looked after my aunt and uncle, also their daughter, all three have now passed away so once again I feel terribly lonely.

I have made a double full circle, one being back in the UK and the other is when I stand at my door and look to the left and see the fields that was once Burtonwood.

Well this is a pretty long story but I thought you may be interested.

I am now 84 years old.

PAT DENIO Dallam