Influential Photo

Influential Photo
03/22/2022

London England, 1944

It was just after my mother who was a Wren with the British Navy married my dad who was in Britain with the Canadian Army.
My mother was in deep stages of depression following the death of her fiancé’, killed in a tank battle many months earlier in France. Her friends trying to get her spirits up, coaxed her into going to a Red Cross dance. It almost took physical effort to get her to attend.
There she met my father, a Canadian lieutenant with the Highland Light Infantry. She could not have cared less but agreed, he seemed like a decent fellow. He, however, was smitten and actively pursued this Scottish lass. For reasons unknown to me still, she consented to be married. There occurred a double wedding ceremony in Aberdeen Scotland December 15, 1944. My mom’s sister was wed to an RCAF Lancaster bomber pilot at the same time.
The picture was just after my parent’s honeymoon. They were in a hotel in London England, outside, in front of a window braced with an X of tape to protect against glass fragments in the event of a bomb blast.
They certainly looked happy. Just a short week later, my dad was off to action in Holland where he was severely wounded. This picture was the last I have of him with two normal legs, and my mom starting momentous change in her life.
I took this photo from her scrap book after she died, had it enlarged, and sent a copy to each of my three brothers. They also hold a deep emotional attachment to this photograph. The thoughts it provokes in each of us are very powerful.
The story does have a very happy ending, but it was a struggle.