Life on the Home Front in wartime wasn't just hard, it was crushing. While gathering on Remembrance Day to honour the men who fought for freedom, we tend to overlook the painful sacrifices made by the women and children left behind.
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Royal Canadian Air Force veteran Dot Proulx was so modest about her wartime service that she wouldn't allow me to publish this until after her death. She passed away on November 20, 2022 at the age of ninety-nine, and I am honoured to share her story at last.
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My own small collection of Queen Elizabeth souvenirs, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, will be cherished as mementoes of a distant yet very constant presence in my life.
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I have a personal connection with one of the oddest events in wartime history, when the German navy deliberately sank its own fleet at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. My husband’s grandfather was serving on one of those ships!
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My husband was a twelve-year-old boy living in a peaceful suburb when the Berlin Wall went up almost overnight, just two blocks from his home. Thankfully, his family lived on the western side. Here are his memories of growing up in the shadow of the wall.
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From my house to yours, here’s a virtual stocking filled with seven Christmas stories for your reading pleasure.
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Emmett Watson was a First World War veteran and talented illustrator who created many inspirational cover images for the wartime Toronto Star Weekly magazine.
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These ten wonderful wartime women, four of them still living, volunteered to serve their countries in World War Two. Please read their stories and remember our veterans, today and always.
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Willa Walker rose rapidly through the ranks in 1941 to become head of the newly-formed Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division. Only 28 years old, grieving the recent death of her baby son, her husband locked away in a German prison camp, Willa rose to the challenge with courage and dignity, breaking down barriers for future generations of women […]
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Named for the future British prime minister, 100-year-old Winston Churchill Parker of Okotoks, Alberta, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, served as a Wireless Air Gunner in a Wellington bomber, was shot down on his unlucky thirteenth mission, and spent the rest of the war as a WW2 POW in a German prison camp. Note […]
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