LOVE LETTERS

These tender missives from the love of her life came straight from the heart

- Jo Carlton

In September 1939, Canada declared war on Germany. As many young couples did at the time, I rushed into a doomed marriage. The highlight of this time was giving birth to my beautiful daughter, Noreen. After my marriage broke up, my friend Helen insisted we go to a beer parlour. I wondered how this would help us meet men, as the men and women were not allowed to drink together. We then discovered the dance halls of Calgary. I loved this period of time, the women would sit on one side of the dance hall and the men on the other. The music would start and the men crossed the floor and selected a girl to dance.

Helen and I had one rule: we always walked home together. This rule worked until I met the love of my life, Bill, who was in the Canadian Army. I was concerned about his being five years younger than I was, but he told me he was older than his years as he had been through a war.

He’d walk me home, then catch a bus to Currie Barracks. He sometimes missed the bus and had to walk the five miles back to base.