The Questions with Van Heerling. My Guest Today is Victoria Washuk.

Welcome to Three Questions with Van Heerling. This is where you get to meet authors, actors, painters and anyone else that is bent toward the arts, but on a more personal level.

Today I welcome Victoria Washuk, editor of World War II London Blitz Diary (A Woman's Revelations Enduring War and Marriage) (1939-1940).  The World War II London Blitz Diary consists of four volumes.

VH: Hello Victoria, if you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to yourself?

VW: If I could be seven again, I would tell myself to stop worrying, things have a way of working out o.k.  I would also tell myself that it is not important what people think about you, you do not have to follow the crowd. Be passionate, follow what you love. Be kind to others. Have confidence in your abilities and don't doubt yourself. Most of all have fun, enjoy every day and go for it.

VH: For what are you grateful?

VW: I am grateful for every opportunity I have been given.  I love life and my husband and three daughters who are all very happy and successful. I am grateful for my parents allowing me to believe I could be or do anything I wanted. I have awesome friends. I am grateful to live in this country.

VH: After a difficult day what do you do to recuperate? Does it work?

VW: After a difficult day I come home, talk to who ever is around and then drink several glasses of wine! It works marvelously.

VH: I think you and my mother would get along wonderfully. She has been known to squeeze a grape or two as well. 

Your series looks intriguing. Thank you Victoria.

Imagine yourself seeing hundreds of Messerschmitt war planes overhead and hearing the explosion of bombs being dropped around you. Wondering if this is the day one will fall on your house.

Ruby Side Thompson’s personal diary was written during the terrifying World War Two London Blitz. Her diary is a true and detailed account of what she experienced during that horrific time. The diary chronicles Ruby's struggle to survive in the midst of a horrendous war, where London is bombed nightly.

Ruby speaks candidly about her unhappiness enduring an unsatisfactory marriage. She was the mother of seven sons, two of whom were enlisted in the R.A.F. One of which became an amputee as the result of hitting a land mine and the other son was captured and sent to a concentration camp as a prisoner of war. Her tale is a mix of the commonplace and the historic as seen through her eyes.

The diary was an outlet for Ruby’s thoughts and feelings that could not be spoken out loud; however, in publishing the diary it gives readers an honest and unfiltered look back at a time that may have been long since forgotten.

Join Ruby on her trying journey as she tries to keep her life and family together during this difficult time in history.

This is volume one of a four volume series written by Ruby Alice Side Thompson.

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Victoria Aldridge Washuk
*Great Granddaughter of Ruby Alice Thompson Side
*Received a B.A. in Psychology from Fairfield University
*Currently working in the financial services field
*Married and Mother of three daughters.

I inherited a set of 43 diaries that span from 1909 – 1969. They were given to my grandmother Ruth Ferris Thompson and she passed them down to me. 

I started re-reading the World War ll journals and found them extremely worthy of note on many levels.  I realized how little I knew about the events surrounding World War ll and what the Londoner’s in particular had to endure.  These journals are a combination of the historical and the exceptionally personal.

I thought that others may also find them intriguing and started a blog.  In doing so I received reactions from people from around the world and this inspired me to publish them in print and eBook for all to enjoy.

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