A band of coincidences made for a beautiful, full circle story for Remembrance Day.

It all started when Derek Madigan began to renovate his partners house. During renovations, Madigan knocked down walls to insulate the room as it got qutie cold and was surprised to find old letters inside the wall. Thinking nothing of them, Madigan set them aside and continued renovations on the home without a second thought. However curiosity soon overcame him, prompting him to open the letters and take a look, discovering that they were letters addressed to a WWII soldiers wife and kids, talking about how much he missed them.

Madigan took these letters to the Weyburn Legion and delivered them to Connie Nightingale on October 31st. Busy with preparations for Rememberance Day, Nightingale accepted the letters but stored them away without looking at them.

Meanwhile local artist Connie Regier was at the library one day when she came across the Mayor, Marcel Roy. Regier approached Roy to ask him if the town had a dedicated poet. Roy had Regier recite two of her poems to him. Regier happily recited two poems, one being about her father leaving for the war when she was only two years old and returning a different man when she was seven. Impressed with her work, Roy directed Regier to Nightingale to talk about these poems.

The War

Father is leaving us

To fight the bad guys

Mother cries

I am too young to know

Where the bad guys live

Mother teaches me

Our father art in England

Neighbours crane their necks

Uniforms in the street Father is here!

Mother reaches out, hugs

Father’s duffle bag shed

From his shoulder

Hiding behind the stuffed chair

I’m seven and know enough

Not to talk to strangers.

When Regier met Nightingale they became quick friends. After some discussion, the two decided to look up Cpl. Sidney John Robert Wilson, Connie Regiers father who had served when they discovered that the letters brought in a few days earlier were in fact written by Cpl. Wilson.

The letters spoke about how much he missed his children, how much he loved his wife and wished to be home. One entry made on New Years wrote: “I have been thinking about you and the kids all day and wishing I was spending this new year with you, and wondering how many months would go by in 45 before I was with you; not many, I hope. I was showing the people your picture and the kids. They think the kids are swell and say it’s a shame that I’ve been away from you and them so long. All my love Darling, love to the kids, your Sid, I miss you honey, Dad XOXO.”

After years of not knowing how her father felt, Regier was given the closure and peace of mind she needed after many years.