She was athletic - and van Allen believes she and Reg may have met at a Dartmouth tennis club.Īnd, her diaries show, she always looked forward to hearing from her beloved. She studied the flute and the piano music was one of the great joys of her life, her grandson Howard van Allen says. Her own replies aren’t stored in the archives.īut her diaries offer glimpses into her life and, sometimes, her heart. The letter arrived at Helen’s King Street home in Dartmouth the next day, but it’s unclear how she responded. Post image on Facebook: Reg began nearly every letter with a greeting to his Dear Little Girl.Post image on Pinterest: Reg began nearly every letter with a greeting to his Dear Little Girl.Reg began nearly every letter with a greeting to his Dear Little Girl. Sorry, I want to be able to get over some night - but it’s a no go for the present. It’s freezing tonight so I supposed that means snowshoeing.
Now Little Girlie, I must take this out to the box and file into bed.
I’d have rung you up later again to try to reach a conclusion, if it were not probable that you would have been in bed. For the life of me, I couldn’t make out what was up, whether you didn’t want to say something that someone might hear or whether you felt rather, on the other hand, that perhaps something was wrong with the person at the end of the line. I do hope that when you receive this you will be feeling a little better than you were when I telephoned today. Some of them expect to leave for England Saturday. … About six of the boys received their “marching orders” tonight and tomorrow go the the Dr.’s office to be examined for the front. Well, I’m not going to “waste” much time over this so after a few little scratches, will hit the sheets myself. I suppose by this time that you are sound asleep in bunk and enjoying dreamland. (Nova Scotia Archives, Jones, Roome, Van Allen family fonds, accession no. Post image on Facebook: Reg Roome would send Helen Jones letters in the post from Halifax in the evening so that they would arrive at her Dartmouth home the next morning.Post image on Pinterest: Reg Roome would send Helen Jones letters in the post from Halifax in the evening so that they would arrive at her Dartmouth home the next morning.Reg Roome would send Helen Jones letters in the post from Halifax in the evening so that they would arrive at her Dartmouth home the next morning. The letters contained within this story have been edited for length. In the first surviving letter filed with the archives, the pair is already separated - he at Pine Hill Divinity Hall in Halifax and she in Dartmouth, N.S. Alternating between fear and hope of what the future might hold - both for the world and for himself and his “Dear Little Girl.” The hundreds of yellowing pages stretch across time and an ocean, connecting Helen Jones and Reg Roome during the First World War and its aftermath.īut those weathered pages only make the script stand out more starkly, revealing stories marked by a soldier’s passion and vulnerability. Tucked away in the Nova Scotia Archives are letters so alive with love they almost have a heartbeat.
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