What a sad but beautiful story.
Some of my mother’s older family members still like to go out and pick wild greens on occasion, for a similar reason. They were thrilled to get an orange and a peppermint stick apiece, for Christmas back then.
Every word the truth...the war made us into thieves as well. I made a little cart out of some scrap wood and my bicycle wheels. Sis and I would leave the house at nightfall and go to the railway yards where we had made a little hole under the fence wire..too small for me but sis could get throught it.
She passed lumps of coal to me while I loaded and kept a lookout for the railway police...coal was rationed and a cart full would last us for about two weeks.
If we got caught we usually took a licking from the railway police..so we travelled the railway yards like black ghosts.
Trouble was soap was also in short supply and hot water had to be heated in a kettle over the fire..thereby burning some of the coal we we had pinched..;-)
We spent many weary hours twisting paper to make large spills...if we soaked these in water they would burn very slowly along with a lump of coal giving a fair heat.
Ah! happy days...NOT!