A timely reminder to never forget

WE'VE had a family bereavement recently and along with the grief, the funeral arrangements and the death admin comes a whole lot of sorting out.

- SUSAN LEE

In our case this has involved going through files and folders and a box stuffed with old letters written during the 1940s between my husband's grandparents.

Yellow with age but carefully stored for decades, they trace their long-distance relationship first as newlyweds, then as husband and wife and then parents all under the shadow of war.

Stella married her soldier sweetheart on Boxing Day 1940. She wore a two-piece suit, he sported a rakish moustache.

By spring 1942 Dennis was deployed, ending up serving in India and Burma. He finally came home in December 1945 to a relieved wife and a three-year-old daughter he had never met.

He rarely talked about his time in the Far East; never spoke about the malaria he contracted, the fighting he saw, the disease and the loss.