Having just experienced a lovely Holiday season with my family, I feel fortunate to have been surrounded by their love and to have experienced the joy of the season through their eyes. It got me thinking about what Christmases must have been like for the characters in my novels. Given that many of those characters were inspired by ancestors of mine or my husband’s, I feel grateful for their perseverance and resilience. After all, if they had not done what they did, I might not be here.
For Will in A Ring of Promises, he spent the winter of 1913 trapped in a logging camp on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, going deeper and deeper in debt to the company that had lured him there with promises he’d make enough money to get properly settled in Canada. He needed that money if he was ever to see the woman he loved again. As a former footman for a high-placed Earl in England, he must have suffered greatly from the extreme cold and the absence of his lady love. Will is based on the man who was my grandfather, so I am very fortunate that he persevered!
For Rod in Promise of the Bluebell Woods, the personnel of the Number 10 Canadian General Hospital were living through World War II in England, awaiting the invasion of France. When Rod left home, he believed the invasion was imminent, but it did not happen until 18 months after he arrived in England. He and all of the medical staff of the Number 10 Canadian General Hospital spent two lonely Christmases in England before they were deployed to France and Belgium. Unlike many other military personnel during World War II, they were relatively safe in the area of Leavesden, England, but they were sad to be separated from their loved ones. When the news hit in January of 1943 that the invasion of France had been delayed, the troops were angry at being separated from their family, only to ‘mark time’ in England. The people of the United Kingdom made it their mission to entertain the troops as a thank-you for their service. For many of the men and women of the Number 10 Canadian General Hospital, it was a lonely Christmas just the same. However, if not for the dances and events held by local communities, Rod would never have met Pearl. Pearl was a young woman who believed it was her duty to attend the community dances because the men needed dance partners. I am grateful she did, as these two characters were based on the lives of my husband’s parents. Before doing the research for this novel, I had not fully understood the role this delay had played in the eventual arrival of over 40,000 War Brides in Canada!
Their 3rd Christmas, the Christmas of 1944, the Number 10 General Canadian hospital was in Turnhout, Belgium. They were very close to the action, with bombs dropping in the community around them, and they were so inundated with seriously injured men and women that they barely got to sleep. Yet their thoughts were on the orphaned children of the area. They held a party for 300 children, sacrificing things that were sent to them from home in their Christmas packages for the good of the children who had lost their parents.
For the War Brides, including Pearl, in my third novel, A Touch of Promise, their first Christmas in Canada would have been strange to say the least. These women were not accepted by Canadians because they were thought to have stolen men from Canadian women. And for several of the women featured in this book, the men they loved were traumatized by war, leaving them incapable of providing for their newly immigrated wives and children. Can you imagine being in a strange country, being resented for loving the man you married, and having no support from your family back home other than one air letter a week with news? Communication was so much harder then. You couldn’t pick up a device and do a video call to your loved one an ocean away.
The reason I write historical fiction is that I don’t want the role our ancestors played in our current lives to be forgotten. I believe we need to understand and value the sacrifices our ancestors made. Our lives today would be vastly different if they had not played their role in our history. Please take the time to document, through video or journal, the stories of the people in your lives who are important to you before these people are no longer here to tell the tales. I would give anything to have a conversation with my grandmother and grandfather to fill in the blanks in their stories with the truth, rather than the fictional version I was forced to create because their stories had been partially lost to the sands of time. Past generations didn’t always share their stories. Let’s make sure we help those whose stories can still be told by capturing the details for future generations of our families.
Many people don’t tell their stories because they think their lives were unremarkable. I beg to differ. Every life matters to the future generations of that family. Something you did, or something you endured has made a difference to the future of your family. So, figure out what it was and tell the story.
You don’t need to write a novel. Just capture the facts in writing or on video and make sure others in your family know how to access the information. Your progeny will be glad you did. Please write a comment on this post and share some of your stories with other readers … or hit reply and send them just to me.
Wishing you a very happy New Year! Hoping all your dreams come true.
From my home to yours, Marie Gage.
