Postmarked "France August 1946," the fragile letter bares the soul of a people beaten down by cruel times and extols their admiration and gratitude for Canada as a nation of spiritual and economic resources that helped them out so much during the war. Within the letter as well, a heartfelt and strikingly prophetic expression of hope to once again receive the downed pilot they had sheltered in 1942.
As if by Providence, this letter now serves to reunite Syd with his angel of the French Resistance 61 years later.
Sydney Percival Smith served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War and returned to graduate from the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry. Retiring after 40 years of practising in Northern and Southern Ontario, he now lives in Kitchener, Ontario.
David Scott Smith is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and graduate of Canada's world renowned Sheridan College Classical Animation Program. His past writing has been in the form of screenplays and storyboarding for major motion picture studios. He now lives in Los Angeles.