'They deserve to be remembered': Sask. war brides share stories to preserve legacy

On July 11, Saskatchewan's lieutenant governor, the province and the Royal United Services Institute of Regina unveiled a new pedestal at the cenotaph in the city's Victoria Park.

The commemorative pedestal was created to honour war brides — women who married Canadian servicemen overseas during the wars and emigrated to Canada with their husbands.

Various speakers at the ceremony mentioned there were likely just two war brides left in Saskatchewan. But shortly after CBC published a story on that ceremony, another war bride, and the son of another, reached out.

Sylvia Power, a 98-year-old British veteran and war bride, said she was sad to hear that so few are left in the province.

"I was shocked really. I thought, surely there must be more. People seem to be living longer these days," Power said.

Sylvia met Canadian soldier Doug Power in 1944 when she 18 years old and in the women's branch of the British Army. The attraction was instant, she said.

"I met him just at the time of D-Day when the Canadian troops were coming to the ordnance depot where I was stationed to pick up their supplies," she said.

"I knew right away he was a gentleman and he treated me very respectfully, which doesn't always happen when you're wearing the uniform."

Sylvia said that when Doug left the depot, she didn't know if she would ever see him again. But they wrote each other for several months while he was away in France and Belgium. On one of his visits to London in 1945, Doug proposed.

After the war ended in September 1945, Canadian soldiers were gradually being sent back to Canada. Sylvia and Doug got married in August 1946 and he was sent home only 11 days later.

Sylvia got the call to join him overseas three months later. They settled just outside of Halifax. At that time, war brides were able to come to Canada on the government's dime if they were married overseas first. They automatically became Canadian citizens.

Despite the war-torn surroundings, leaving her home in southwest London, near Wimbledon, was extremely difficult for Sylvia, who adored her city.

"That's when it got scary, my first little while [in Canada], until I gradually got used to it," Sylvia said.

"I felt very insecure because, you know, you feel that everybody was looking at you all the time, which they were. You just had a totally different way of life. But at the time, anybody speaking with an English accent, people looked at you as though you were putting it on. So I felt very self-conscious about it."