There's not much to beat a snatch of old song when it comes to bringing memories flooding back. For Margaret Roach, who used to be Peggy Davison, it's "I'll be loving you - always".

She writes from the North East to say: "Whenever I hear it my thoughts return to August, 1940, when I worked in Sowden's Hostel, 446 Haworth Road, Sandy Lane, which I loved. Unfortunately I got diphtheria and was sent to the City Fever Hospital in Leeds Road. There were no radios or TVs in hospitals in those days, so we used to sing, "Another patient was Nellie Hey (or Hay). She was 21 and her husband was a soldier. I always wondered if he came back safely and if they had a good life together. Her small niece had died of diphtheria just a few weeks before, early in 1941.

"Due to conscription, when I was 20 I had to return home to Sunderland. For a while I wrote to another patient, Dorothy Teale, but lost touch later.

"While living in Sandy Lane I also used to visit my father's cousin, Grace Hodgson, her husband Len and family Eric and twins Kenneth and Mary, who lived in Paley Road, West Bowling.

"It would be lovely to know how they all progressed, as well as Nellie and Dorothy. When one is getting on in years memories are wonderful things."

If anyone would like to contact Mrs Roach, please write to her care of me at the T&A and I'll send any mail on to her.