A Matter of Chance

Born in 1910 in the City of Worcester, Annie Jones, later to become Annie Hancock, was only 5 years old when her father was killed in The Great War. The death of her father affected her profoundly for the rest of her life. Her school days were her happiest days spent in the blissful ignorance of an innocent, impressionable child. She left these days behind her at age 14 and entered both the working world with all its harsh reality and adolescence with all its confusing emotions. An early romantic attachment ended painfully and abruptly. Eventually she did marry and raised three daughters. As they began to grow up an unexpected tragedy overtook the family, changing all their lives forever.

Annie writes her memoirs in her old age and tells a tale of triumph over adversity. This is a story of an indomitable spirit; a personal account of hardship and suffering. It is a social document of poverty and deprivation spanning The Great War, The Depression and World War II.

Shortly before her death, at age 79, she writes of her "skeleton in the cupboard", a harrowing tale of the consequences of unrequited love, a weighty secret that she kept hidden for over fifty years.

Featured in Worcester News.