Sea Your History - Support from family and friends 3

Support from family and friends 3 - "Is this your husband, Jo?"

Jo Hodson

Jo Hodson married her husband George in 1964 when he had been in the Royal Navy for eight years. During his service, he spent most of his time on submarines and throughout the Cold War Jo had little idea of where he might be from day to day. They have two children, the first of which George did not see until several days after she was born. They spent a short period in married quarters until deciding to buy their own home. George retired in 1980.

Jo recalls the succession of male visitors she received in hospital following the birth of her daughter.

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Extract Text (Duration 1.27)

J Hodson: Once I'd had Deborah, a lot of the wives of work colleagues decided to take pity on me because there was no father around, so I'm afraid that every night of the week for... well almost the ten days that I was in Blake, I had a different man visit, because I worked in a Planning Office in the Royal Naval Dockyard and of course a lot of the men there were ex-naval types and so their wives ordered them to come and visit me. So I'm afraid that, you know... for example, the first night, someone would come in and the other girls in the ward would say, "Is this your husband, Jo?" and I would say, "No." And night two would come and a different man would come. And same sort of question, same reply and this went on for about five or six days and I think the final one was a 16 year old, who was a clerical assistant that I worked with, and his mother had sent him along to... with some chocolate I think it was and... and he was told to make, you know, sympathetic noises and ooh and aah in the right places, but poor lad hadn't got a clue. Really hadn't. But finally, after about a week, George did turn up and saw his daughter for the first time.

Interviewer: So, what did all your mates on the ward say when this real husband finally turned up?

J Hodson: Well, I think by then they'd given up, they'd ceased to be amazed. "Well, is this him then?" "Yes. This is the father".