Sixty eight year old Mrs Josephine Pearson’s earliest memory was the first and the last time she ever saw her dad.

Mrs Pearson recalls her memory from 1942, when she went to see the Disney classic Bambi at three years old. Holding both her mum and dad's hands Mrs Pearson walked the cobbled streets of East London, wearing her new pleated skirt and beret, to the local movie theatre. ‘I remember the day so vividly’, exclaimed Mrs Pearson,’ I remember it because I hadn’t seen my father in three years, and after that day I didn’t see him again.’

Josephine’s dad was out fighting World War Two in Germany throughout Josephine’s childhood, and died when she was seven. Josephine explains ‘the memory is very special to me as it is the only one I have with my father’.

Josephine recalls entering the busy theatre, full of children waiting in anticipation for the latest Disney film and sat right at the front in between her mum and dad. The film Bambi is known for its poignant storyline and Mrs Pearson claimed how the death of Bambi’s mother was a forewarning sign about her father, as he was later shot whilst at war. ‘That point of the film made me very distressed as it made me become very anxious of losing my father’.

Mrs Pearson went on to become a housewife, having no children, and is now a widower living in West Moore’s.