The War Bride

“Auntie Mae, how is it that you’ve managed to keep that adorable accent all those years”?  It was a question Mae Finlay had been asked many times, and she had to admit that although she loved Newfoundland, she was secretly proud that she hadn‘t lost her English accent.  “I guess it’s just something I didn’t forget dear”, she smiled at her niece Mabel, “some things just never leave you”.  Growing up in London when the British Empire was still a force to be reckoned with, she knew little of life in “the colonies”, as some still called the now self governing nations that remained loyal to the British crown. That the rocky wind swept island of Newfoundland, Britain’s oldest colony, would someday be the place she called home, was as farfetched a thought as that of marrying into the Royal Family. After Mabel left she found herself, as she so often did now, reliving those early years of her life, feeling sometimes as if she was remembering a dream or scenes from another lifetime.

She was 17 and just finished school, when Britain declared war on Germany in August of 1939 and like most other young English women of the day, soon found herself involved in the military. She remembered the blackouts when German planes filled the night sky and no one knew what moment might be their last. Strange she thought, how everyone remained so stoic as the weeks turned into months and the months into years. Despite all that was happening around them however, young people still found time to dream and time for romance.  She would never forget the first time she saw twenty-two year old private Martin Finlay, and her heart skipped a beat as she gazed into the eyes of this handsome young soldier.  As they chatted, she was as intrigued by his accent as she was charmed by his good looks and enchanting smile. Their first date, if you could call it that during wartime, was on April 10, 1944 and it was then that she learned that he was from a tiny community on the South coast of Newfoundland, not only that, but he planned on returning there to fish with his father when the war was over. Six weeks later, Mae knew she would follow Martin Finlay to the ends of the earth if necessary.