HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1985-05-08, Page 101Page Pro
Wartime romance for the Corniiers
3y /Wawa Friel
Francyna was taking a bigger than
usual step in 1945 when she fell in love
with a French-Canadian soldier at the
end of the Second World War.
In Holland the war had been a long af-
fair of bombing, theft and death until
Francyna's brother found a lost Cana-
dian soldier after curfew. Paul Cormier
was asking the way to the highway to
travel to Brussels, but the brother didn't
speak English.
He took Paul to the house Francyna
and her 10 siblings and her -parents lived
because the 17 -year-old girl had taken
some English lessons.
The mother directed that the foreigner
should stay over night rather than go out
during curfew and that started Fran-
cyna's 38 years of living in Canada.
The two young people had been eyeing
each other and Paul didn't leave for
Brussels the next morning. In fact, he •
spent his 72 hour furlough and that
established the basis for a relationship in
which the couple have just passed their
39th year.
When Paul met the young woman, she
had lived her life in Tilburg in Holland's
north. The war broke out when she was
12, only two years younger than when her
mother escaped the German invasion of
Belgium in the First World War.
Francyna remembers getting ready to
sit down to Sunday supper when the
sirens sounded, shrieking out for citizens
to get under cover in nearby bomb
shelters.
The family and others sharing the
shelter were trapped in the underground
box for two days and two nights while
American bombers pounded the town.
When the bombardment was over, the
shaken group went back to their house.
ing affected by the heavy bombing.
And young Francyna, an accordian
player, had her musical talents put to
work during those hard years.
She played at the local school for
dances held for the Allied soldiers and
their Dutch dates. The band didn't play
for money, "it was worthless" but for
food.
Her other major playing date was at 4
o'clock in the morning. Her father would
say, "Better get to sleep early, I'm going
to need you tonight."
The Dutch girl and her soldier
Though there wasn't any major damage
to her parents' house, her sister's home
next door was hit. Huge holes peppered
her sister's house and the shock of the
blast blew out the windows of the
neighboring house, littering the two day
old food with glass.
A nearby convent was heavily bombed,
suspected of harboring Germans but only
nuns/ inhabited the holy place. "It was
very sad," said Francyna. ,
Her grandmother, "a big woman, she
weighed about 300 pounds, but the
sweetest, jolliest woman" had her hear-
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Young Francyna would groan, "Not
again" but early in the morning she'd be
loudly - very loudly - practicing her ac-
cordian while her father slaughtered
black market pigs.
The accorcljan was an obstacle for
another reason. When Francyna would
have rather been outith Paul on a Fri-
day night date, she would often have to
practice her instrument while her friends
were out having fun. • •
After the war Paul delayed his return
to Canada twice by rejecting the drafts
0 urn In paw. 411
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