Odette Goes to War - 1944

Odette Goes to War - 1944, a photo by VancouverDoug on Flickr.

One of the more fascinating women I've met and developed a deep friendship with over the years is Odette. That's her on the far right in this photo. Odette, who today is just shy of 90, joined the Canadian military in the darkest days of the second world war as part of the military's entertainment group. Her and her troupe would roam from allied front-line base to to front-line base in war torn Europe and entertain the troops. Needless to say her stories of that time are nothing short of astounding.

In this shot a 19 year old Odette, along with 5 of her fellow entertainers prepare to board their troop ship to England. An interesting voyage she says as they ran dark at night for the week it took to avoid the German U-boats.

On this upcoming Remembrance Day remember the old adage - If you can read this Facebook post - thank a teacher. You can read this Facebook post in English thanks to our veterans.