Bringing life to my parent's love
Donation protected
I am hoping to realize a project that means everything to me and I urgently need your help with it.
I live in Ottawa and my father was a member of the Manitoba Dragoons and was stationed in Holland. My mother was posted in Ottawa during WWII.
I have been blessed to have the complete war-time correspondence between them (as near as I can tell). It took me a long time to get up the courage to read those letters, and to be honest it was a revelation. It's like the people who wrote them, I never met. My father in particular - I knew him as guarded, angry and lonely. The man in those letters was none of those things. He was hopeful, funny and, at times, even poetic. And oh so loving.
My mission is to take that legacy and publish it - share their story with the world. To do them justice. To bring to life the youthful, hopeful selves that the War took away.
I need your help with that.
Here is one my father wrote to my mother – selected at random:
Sept 9/45
My Darling –
Well, I’m back at camp thank goodness!! It’s really good to get back. Just got back to-day at 2 o’clock. We stayed in Cologne over night again. The officer let us have a vehicle so we went up to Bonn – about 12 miles from Cologne. There’s quite a few canteens there & the place isn’t all flattened. Got feeling good too!! The Limeys have a wet canteen there so went there and got brewed up!! That’s about all there is to do there – so we dood it!!
Darling, I didn’t get a single letter from you when I got back. Got some from my mom, Uncle Joe & Snookie, but not from you. But I did get the books you sent me, darling. Thanks a million. I guess I’ll one up on you – I don’t have to ask you for the book “Kitty”, cause I read that 3 months ago – spent half the night reading it too! Oh she was quite the gal – some way to get to the top eh?!!
Well I have a bit of good news – not don’t count on it too much but it certainly looks promising. It’s about coming home. I think I may make Xmas after all. They say that all 110 point men will be leaving here the end of next month. Well, I’ve got a 100 so I should leave in Nov. – that’s providing they keep going the way they are. But darling, please don’t count on it cause you know the army. I sure hope to God it comes true though. I guess we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed.
There’s another big gang going to drive more vehicles to another country next week. I have a hunch I’ll be on it too. I hope not, but I’m afraid I will. I hear it’s with Greece this time. Of all the places to go we get em all. At any rate I’m seeing the world. I even know what the people are like in Czechoslovakia!! It helps pass the time till I’m home with you again.
Darling, don’t stop writing until you know definitely that I’m on my way, cause you can’t count on any thing in the army, you know that. So just cause I said there’s a slight chance I may make Xmas, don’t stop writing. I’ll let you know definitely when the time comes.
Well my Darling, I guess I better close for now. Hope I get a letter from you soon. Always remember I love you, darling, with all my heart – for always.
Regards to all –
All my love –
Your husband Fred
XXXXXX
I have approximately 200 letters in total. Some like that one – some far more emotionally charged. I have shed more tears than I can count reading them and feeling his isolation for the first time.
My dream is to do justice to this legacy – I don’t plan on simply reprinting those letters. I want to show where my father was when he wrote them – what sky he saw at night. What stars did he dream on. What was my mother’s world like. How very different was her world from his.
Please help me to do this.
I live in Ottawa and my father was a member of the Manitoba Dragoons and was stationed in Holland. My mother was posted in Ottawa during WWII.
I have been blessed to have the complete war-time correspondence between them (as near as I can tell). It took me a long time to get up the courage to read those letters, and to be honest it was a revelation. It's like the people who wrote them, I never met. My father in particular - I knew him as guarded, angry and lonely. The man in those letters was none of those things. He was hopeful, funny and, at times, even poetic. And oh so loving.
My mission is to take that legacy and publish it - share their story with the world. To do them justice. To bring to life the youthful, hopeful selves that the War took away.
I need your help with that.
Here is one my father wrote to my mother – selected at random:
Sept 9/45
My Darling –
Well, I’m back at camp thank goodness!! It’s really good to get back. Just got back to-day at 2 o’clock. We stayed in Cologne over night again. The officer let us have a vehicle so we went up to Bonn – about 12 miles from Cologne. There’s quite a few canteens there & the place isn’t all flattened. Got feeling good too!! The Limeys have a wet canteen there so went there and got brewed up!! That’s about all there is to do there – so we dood it!!
Darling, I didn’t get a single letter from you when I got back. Got some from my mom, Uncle Joe & Snookie, but not from you. But I did get the books you sent me, darling. Thanks a million. I guess I’ll one up on you – I don’t have to ask you for the book “Kitty”, cause I read that 3 months ago – spent half the night reading it too! Oh she was quite the gal – some way to get to the top eh?!!
Well I have a bit of good news – not don’t count on it too much but it certainly looks promising. It’s about coming home. I think I may make Xmas after all. They say that all 110 point men will be leaving here the end of next month. Well, I’ve got a 100 so I should leave in Nov. – that’s providing they keep going the way they are. But darling, please don’t count on it cause you know the army. I sure hope to God it comes true though. I guess we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed.
There’s another big gang going to drive more vehicles to another country next week. I have a hunch I’ll be on it too. I hope not, but I’m afraid I will. I hear it’s with Greece this time. Of all the places to go we get em all. At any rate I’m seeing the world. I even know what the people are like in Czechoslovakia!! It helps pass the time till I’m home with you again.
Darling, don’t stop writing until you know definitely that I’m on my way, cause you can’t count on any thing in the army, you know that. So just cause I said there’s a slight chance I may make Xmas, don’t stop writing. I’ll let you know definitely when the time comes.
Well my Darling, I guess I better close for now. Hope I get a letter from you soon. Always remember I love you, darling, with all my heart – for always.
Regards to all –
All my love –
Your husband Fred
XXXXXX
I have approximately 200 letters in total. Some like that one – some far more emotionally charged. I have shed more tears than I can count reading them and feeling his isolation for the first time.
My dream is to do justice to this legacy – I don’t plan on simply reprinting those letters. I want to show where my father was when he wrote them – what sky he saw at night. What stars did he dream on. What was my mother’s world like. How very different was her world from his.
Please help me to do this.
Organizer
Michael Mines
Organizer
Ottawa, ON
