Alone in Pevensey - Mum's memories in poetry

My Mum left a series of poems and prose about her wartime life. 

In one album she writes, "my life as a mechanic is isolated. At RAF Pevensey in 1945, I am discovered by Jerry Ford". 

Her poem says much more:

Pevensey Blues

An ignorant girl

Stood in a swamp and stared.

A black man on a bicycle saw the girl in the middle of the marsh and stopped.

Hi!

The girl believed she was invisible and did not hear.

Hi!

Nonchalant, admiring, he waited.

Caltha palustris, shining, glabrous, held her in thrall.

She learned words like this from a little book.

She always carried a book to help her in her ignorance.

She stared at the king-cup, golden-eyed, unwinking.

Hi!     He approached.

Being a polite sort of girl she went to enquire if 

something was the matter

And thus began a conversation.

At Eastbourne, sprawled at ease on a bed of pebbles

He potted seagulls

Laughed uproariously when she remonstrated.

At home, he said, they ate little birds,

Killed them with stones,

And laugh, right from the belly,

Not in good taste.

At Wilmington she learned for certain she was not invisible.

The Long Man took no notice.

In the Naafi he taught her the tango.

Some one put on 'Jealousy'

'Twas all over my ... '

A patronising corporal pronounced them 'Very Good',

And led a round of applause.

Shortly after the black man was posted

To the far North of Scotland.

The girl became invisible,

Quite, quite invisible.

And nobody noticed that she had disappeared

Right inside a book written in exquisite taste.

'The Pattern in the Carpet' was it?

Caltha palustris - King-cup or Marsh Marigold

Eileen kept in touch with Jerry when he returned to Jamaica and I remember his family visited us from Kingston many years later - although I no longer  know how to trace them ...

Photos sent in later letters from Jerry Ford