1915, April 21st. Charley's 24th letter home from France. WW1

April 21st, 1915
France
No 2 Stationary Hospital
 
Dear Mother
      Well it is about 3 weeks since I had a letter from anybody in Canada so there must be something wrong with the mail service as I used to get 8 –10 a week. I suppose some of these days I will get about a whole days reading
      Things in general around here are beginning to rush again. Wounded coming in every day. The fine weather enables them to do a lot more fighting than in the previous months and by the way the wounded are coming in they are sure making use of the opportunity.
      The other day I was taking a little stroll in this vicinity and by chance happened to pass by a little old shack. In this little building there was an old couple of about 80 years of age. Very near starving to death and so many holes in the roof of the shack that it did not even keep the rain out.
I happened to get talking to them and found out they were Belgium refugees. The old lady let me see the picture of her seven sons. Four of them had been killed one was not expected to live. The other was in Hospital at Paris Plaza and the other they did not know where he was. Can you imagine a sight like that. It was the most heart rending thing that I ever saw or heard tell of.
      Has Sask gone dry yet or is it just a scare. I can hardly imagine that Province going prohibition.
      The 29th of the month is the birthday do you remember 18 years ago at Portage when all us kids were playing in the yard and Annie came out to tell us she heard a kid cry “I will never forget it” Makes quite a difference a few years doesn’t it.
      Well Mother if you happen to write to the kid shortly give her my best regards and congratulations.
Remember me to Dad and write soon
With love Chas.

A 2015 Aside:  The team at www.rtbf.be, under the leadership of Juliette Patriarch have done a

fantastic job of documenting the Belgian experience during the First World War.  

Marie Cappart and the other members of this team have put together an informative, inspiring and heartrending (as in Charley's chance meeting with the elderly Belgian couple) online experience. 

Visiting the page titled "All Topics' is a good place to start and invites us to "immerse ourselves in the biggest and smallest stories of the First World War.