Farewell to Doris, blitz survivor, 102.

A CENTENARIAN from Coventry who lived through the devastation of the blitz has died days short of her 103rd birthday.

Although her home escaped the bombing of November 14, 1940, Doris Cox's house wasn't so lucky in the second blitz of the city five months later.

Doris bravely picked up her young daughter and ran with her husband from their home in Somerset Road, Radford.

Minutes later their house was flattened by Nazi bombs on April 13, 1941.

LOFT When they returned the following day, few of their possessions survived the bombing, save for a framed picture of the Sacred Heart and a her daughter Barbara's treasured teddy.

CONVERSIONS Barbara, who is now in her 70s, was six years old at the time and recalls returning to a scene of rubble at the site her home once stood.

02476 697746 07900 586008 She said: "I can remember the three of us running through the street after hiding under the stairs.

"We had just more or less made it to the air raid shelter when a bomb hit our house. The morning after that we went back.

"On the only wall that was still standing was a picture of the Sacred Heart which was hung above our piano. It was as if God was watching over us.

"I was too young to remember how I felt but I think it must have been awful for my parents.

"I still remember seeing the lines of bodies laid out outside a local pub.

"Thank God our grandchildren don't have to go through what we did in those days."

The family moved to a new house in Bulwer Road, Radford, where they were able to continue with their lives. A devout Catholic, Doris was a member of St Osburg's Union of Catholic Mothers for 21 years.

After the blitz, she joined the congregation at Christ the King RC Church in Coundon where Bert, Doris's husband of 63 years, was a churchwarden for 47 years.

Bert died at the age of 88 in 2003.

Roy, Doris's son-in-law, said: "I think she put it (the blitz) to the back of her mind, not wanting to go back over those things."

When the great-grandmother turned 100, not only did she receive a message from the Queen, she was also presented with a Papal blessing.

Doris, a former assembler for Reynolds Chain in Spon End, died peacefully at home on October 25 at the age of 102 - 19 days away from her 103rd birthday on November 13.

She leaves her daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Barbara said: "I think she would have loved to reached 103 years old because right up until she was 100 we were able to take her to church every Sunday in her wheelchair."

The funeral will take place this Friday at Christ the King Church, in Westhill Road, Coundon, at noon.

CAPTION(S):

CENTENARIAN... Blitz survivor Doris Cox has died aged 102. Below, her husband Burt rescues a picture of FROM pounds 500 M.W. CONTRACTORS Tel: [phone] Mobile: [phone] Christ after the bombing. Right, daughter Barbara retrieves a doll from the remains of their home.