Barbara Northey Coffindaffer has lived in the U.S. for 72 years, but there’s still a hint of English accent in her voice. Also enduring the years are vivid memories of her early life in Worcester, England and how it was forever changed by World War II. Just telling the story resurfaces the emotion – the love, the fear and even a little bit of hesitancy.

 

Eighteen-year-old Barbara Joyce Underhill worked as an operator for the postal service telephone exchange. She had friends. She even liked to flirt with the young men for whom she would connect calls. But, she, her family and the town’s people were always on edge, living under aerial warfare - always listening for the sounding of the siren, alerting the people that the German planes – the Messerschmitts - were approaching above.

 

It had been going on for five years and with Worcester only about 90 miles from London – a main target– it happened daily; sometimes several times a day.

 

“My dad was registered to be a volunteer air raid warden – which meant if the war bombings came, he had to go around and make sure the specially-made black fitted draperies were closed in the houses and that the lights were off,” said Coffindaffer, explaining that, if in the dark, a city could remain invisible from the skies.

 

When the raid siren sounded, the family – and often an elderly neighbor - huddled on the cold stone cellar stairs of their duplex, waiting. And though the nearby cities of Coventry and Birmingham were hit, theirs remained safe. The American soldiers stationed there helped protect them. Once in a while, a party – of sorts - would be held to show their appreciation.

 

One such gathering took place in the town’s guild hall. It was just before Christmas in 1944. That was the first time she laid eyes on U.S. Army Captain James Northey, seven years her senior. He asked her to dance and after the third or fourth invitation, she finally said yes.

 

“He was quite handsome and seemed to be attentive. It didn’t take too long for us to fall in love,” said Coffindaffer, the look in her eye validating the instant affection she felt for her American soldier.

 

He was stationed about 30 miles away, but he came for her often. And during their dates, her dad was on an alert of a different kind.

 

“Jim would bring me home and we would stand on the corner – behind a hedge that was about six feet tall. Dad would stay by the gate until I came home,” Coffindaffer said.

 

Reginald Underhill would call his daughter by name, telling her it was time to come into the house; at first very patient, then with urgency.

“It took three times. Finally, Dad said either you come in or I’m coming down to the corner,” she said.

 

The courtship continued and after about a year and a half, Mr. Underhill took his oldest daughter via train to the London Airport, from where she would fly by herself to New York City to make America her home. Before returning to the states, Captain Northey had proposed. He would meet her in the Big Apple and take her by train to Pittsburgh, where she would become Mrs. James Northey.

 

She borrowed a wedding dress from another English war bride, who was already married and in the U.S. A small consolation for missing her daughter’s wedding, Coffindaffer’s mum – Doris Underhill – did get to see her in her wedding dress before she left.

 

Coffindaffer remembers second guessing her decision to leave her family – including younger siblings, four-year-old Janet and eight-year-old Mike.

 

“There was a moment when I almost didn’t put my foot on the plane, but you know how it is, love can blind you from almost everything,” she said.

 

She was welcome by Jim's family with open arms, but said that life in America took some getting used to – the food, customs, the phrases; just about everything. When the Sunday School class at Jim’s church threw her a wedding shower, it completely took her off guard. She had never heard of such a thing.

 

Just a week after her arrival in the U.S. - on April 22, 1946 - she walked down the aisle of a small Baptist church, noticing there were a lot of people gathered for her wedding. Of course, not a single face looked familiar.

 

“I think a lot of people came just to see what Jim Northey’s wife looked like,” Coffindaffer said, a sly smile forming and with a twinkle in her eye.

 

Coffindaffer was 20 years old when she married Northey, who after serving his country, pursued a degree in accounting and worked at the family’s gas station in the Pittsburgh area. Eventually, the couple had a family of their own.

 

“I had two miscarriages before Wayne was born in 1949, then came Susan, Wendy and Julie,” Coffindaffer said.

 

Her mum was able to visit during the early years of their marriage. Sadly, she died shortly after she went back to England. It wasn’t until 1963 that Coffindaffer was able to fly home to Worcester to see her dad, brother and sister.

 

Mike and Janet were adults. Her dad had married the wife of Coffindaffer’s uncle who had been killed in the war. Coffindaffer said she was happy to introduce all of them to her young children, who were dressed in their very best for the special occasion.

 

“Wayne was dressed in a light gray sports jacket, shirt and tie and dark gray trousers,” she said. “Susan had a pretty dress and patent leather shoes and a red coat with a pretty red straw hat and gloves and Wendy and Julie had identical purple coats, straw hats and gloves.”

 

As he had to work, Jim Northey didn’t make the trip overseas. He certainly missed his family.

 

Coffindaffer, who had made a plan to stay 10 weeks in Worcester, admits that she was hoping her husband would pack up and join them, continuing their life together in the hometown of her youth. But, of course, that didn’t happen. After three weeks in England, she and the children returned home to the states.

 

Jim Northey died in 1970 after having a heart attack. He was 50 years old. Just 43 years of age, Coffindaffer was a widow with three children still in school. Raising them by herself was a bit of a struggle, but they were happy. Eleven years later, Coffindaffer was wed again – to John Coffindaffer.

 

“John was from our church (Simpson Creek Baptist) and his wife had died about two years before that,” she said.

 

He died in 1993.

 

Coffindaffer talks to her brother and sister on a regular basis and has visited several times. Every day, she gives thanks for the large family that resulted from her love with an American soldier: Son Wayne and his wife Harriett, daughters Susan Owen and husband Eric, daughter Wendy Imperial and daughter Julie Lane and husband Jack – as well as 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. 

 

She has been an active member of Simpson Creek Baptist Church since 1964.