大象传媒

My brothers and sister and i were travelling to visit our grandparents, Alice and James Birch in Derby. On the station was a young man in uniform,obviously waiting for a train. Being a talkative little girl, i went up to speak to him much to my brother's and sister's horror. It turned out that he was Canadian and so i commited another crime by asking if he had "any gum chum", i had heard my friends saying this. I was rounded on by my brothers and sister who told me it was rude to ask for things. The train came and the young man was catching our train, although he had a second class ticket and we only had a third. He nevertheless joined us in the third class carriage. He was asking us all about our country and how different it was to his, so much smaller. We then asked him where he came from and he told us Canada. After trying to find out a bit about him he just told us he had family back home, but nothing else, apart from the fact that he was fighting in the War for our freedom. He did however say that he was going on a very long journey, but couldn't say where. He was generous enough to give each of us chocolate, which was a rare treat when the shops were devoid of these types of goodies.
We arrived at our destination and got off the train waving goodbye to this kind , young man saying to him "God Bless", and a safe journey to wherever he was going.I turned to my brother, Tony and said "We fogot to ask his name, we don't know who he is" .
Weeks later it was anounced on the radio that a large force of Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen had been involved in the Normandy Landings, which started the freedom of Europe. I wondered if our young Canadian had been involved and if this was his journey's end. I have never stopped wondering about this young man, even though i am now 65 years of age, did he survive?

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