About the Book    The Canadian Red Cross Society has a long and proud history of humanitarian service. An important chapter of that history was written during the Second World War by the Canadian Red Cross Corps Overseas Detachment and the enthusiastic young women who volunteered to serve their country and humanity in a time of dire need. Lois MacDonald Cooper is one of those women. A twenty-three year old resident of Ottawa when she joined the Red Cross to go overseas in August of 1943, Mrs. Cooper was part of a contingent of over six hundred women who served their country with great pride and patriotism. There is indeed little doubt, as Mrs. Cooper notes in her letters, that they went to England as "girls" and returned to Canada as "women."
   Mrs. Cooper´s Wartime Letters Home provides the unique perspective of a young Canadian woman in the Red Cross who had a front row seat on history. She took advantage of the opportunity presented to record the routine of daily life and impressions of tumultuous events unfolding around her in the letters she wrote to her parents.
   On a personal level, her letters capture very concisely the spirit of the day; the many quick friendships that arise as people´s lives intersect briefly and the small number of more enduring friendships where similar experiences under difficult circumstances forge life-long bonds. They resonate with anticipation as she and her colleagues await the invasion of Europe, and with sorrow as Canadian casualties mount in the battle for North-West Europe.
   Within the Canadian Red Cross Society, there is a bridge between those who have gone before and those now serving. That bridge is the humanitarian principle and the desire to help those who are most vulnerable. Mrs. Cooper and the women who served with her epitomize the very best traditions of the Canadian Red Cross movement. We are indeed proud she is one of us.

      Dr. Pierre Duplessis
      Secretary General
      Canadian Red Cross Society

About the Author Lois MacDonald Cooper
Lois MacDonald Cooper (1920- ) was born in Ottawa, and educated at the Ottawa Ladies College and McGill University's MacDonald College. During the years she spent overseas as a Canadian Red Cross volunteer in the Second World War, Cooper penned more than 300 letters to her parents, and these formed the book, "Wartime Letters Home" (2004, Borealis). After the war, North Bay became home for Cooper's family -- husband John Cooper, a Canadian Naval Officer, and their four daughters.

Also by the Author Lettres du temps de guerre à ma famille (2005)