🍒🐧 So, Cherry met a character straight out of a Dickens novel.
At one point in 1941, Cherry was having a bad mental health day and had a delusional episode. He was convinced that burglars were about to break in, that Germans were hiding in the garden bushes, and that there were hidden machines in his attic sending messages over the roofs. His wife Angela encouraged him to sleep, and in the meantime called his brother-in-law, Ashton, for advice on how to help him.
Ashton says, "We need to get him committed to a mental asylum."
Angela is like, "... that seems rather premature."
Ashton is all, "No, no, I know a man who runs a treatment home - I'll send him round to see Cherry tomorrow."
And he sends round this doctor who thinks he can diagnose a patient on the basis of their handwriting. By the next day, Cherry's feeling more his usual self, and has pretty much forgotten yesterday's fears. But the doctor gets Cherry to write a few sentences for him and says, "Yes, this man clearly needs to be committed immediately."
Angela, to her credit, tells him to never contact them again. (Though he keeps telephoning for days afterward until she has to get very forceful.) Ashton's not pleased with her decision, and implies that she shouldn't be surprised if Cherry turns around and murders her one of these days. (Get lost, Ashton.)
As for Cherry, he never even knew any of this happened, as his memory of those few days was a blank afterward. When someone mentioned Pearl Harbour to him some months later, he was shocked, as he didn't remember hearing a thing about it.
