Voices of the Left Behind
Olga Rains, Lloyd Rains, and Melynda Jarratt
Voices of the Left Behind
Project Roots and the Canadian War Children of World War II
Copyright © Olga Rains, Lloyd Rains, and Melynda Jarratt, 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Copy-Editor: Lloyd Davis
Design: Andrew Roberts
Printer: Marquis
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Rains, Olga
Voices of the left behind : Project Roots and the Canadian war children of World War II / Olga Rains, Lloyd Rains and Melynda Jarratt.
First ed. published Fredericton, N.B. : Project Roots, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 10: 1-55002-585-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-55002-585-9
1. Illegitimate children--Netherlands--Biography. 2. Children of military personnel--Netherlands--Biography. 3. Children of military personnel--Canada--Biography. 4. World War, 1939-1945--Children--Netherlands--Biography. 5. Project Roots. 6. Netherlands--Biography. I. Rains, Lloyd II. Jarratt, Melynda III. Project Roots IV. Title.
D810.C4R34 2006 940.53'161'0922 C2005-906956-2
1 2 3 4 5 10 09 08 07 06
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
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Printed on recycled paper.
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Voices of the Left Behind
Table of Contents
THE CANADIANS IN BRITAIN, 1939–1946, by Melynda Jarratt
Exceeded All My Hopes, by John
Still He Eludes Me, by Sheila Blake
Better Off without Him, by Alan Franklin
His Father’s Eyes, by Melynda Jarratt
Mixed Blessings, by Olga Rains
Canadian Bastard, by Sandra Connor
Looking for Harry Potter, by Christine Coe
He Was a Bigamist, by Olga Rains
I Found Real Happiness in Canada, by Jenny Moore
The Search for My Father, by Peter Hurricks
Scarred for the Rest of Her Life!, by Mary K.
He Just Would Not Admit He Was My Dad, by Pat K.
Devil’s Brigade, by Carol Anne Hobbs
With a Deeper Meaning, by Ralph Thompson
Remembering — The War Within, by Karen Cockwell
I Found My Roots in Canada, by Maureen Fletcher
Losses: A Poem, by Maureen Fletcher
THE LIBERATION OF HOLLAND, by Olga Rains
I Met My First Love after the Liberation, by Mira
Irene Means Peace, by Olga Rains
The Shock Killed Him!, by Olga Rains
She Thought He Was Dead, by Olga Rains
Where Is Fred?, by Olga Rains
They Let Her Down, by Olga Rains
A Happy Story, by Hans Kingma
The Hope and Disappointment of a Liberation Child, by Theo Timmer