Welcome to Hell

Sandra Fearon, 69, Bideford, Devon

As the curtain opened and the puppet show began, I couldn’t stop laughing.

‘So funny,’ I giggled with my two brothers, then 6 and 3.

It was 1961, and I was 9. My dad Patrick, then 32, was the theatre’s stage manager, and my family lived a comfortable life.

One of the first in the area to get a TV.

My mum Gwendoline, then 26, was beautiful, and Dad was besotted.

But that summer, I awoke to find Dad crying – Mum was nowhere to be seen.