8/5/43.

Dearest Jill;

At the moment I am suffering extreme pangs of jealousy. Corporal Thomas, who has been working with me as flare-path corporal since I came here, is going on leave and getting married next week – a fact which he has just disclosed!

And here I sit….damn it. Who the hell is he to be so happy, thinks I? It should be us, remember, “just the we of us,” and all I can do is write to you and tell you I love you darling and wish so damn much that I could be with you, just to be sure such things things are real.

I didn’t intend that this be a dirge my sweet, but I do miss you so much and this is one of those moments when I have nothing to distract my mind from the fact.

Corp. Thomas and I have the caravan to ourselves tonight as there is no flying, so here I sit camped on number two runway end, listening to a gale roar around us and the ceasless static on our radio set.

How soon will we lie on the warm Okanagan sand, under a great yellow moon, listening to the old songs of the pines – the beautifull free songs of the age old, yet ever young symbols of our valley – the bull pines?

Soon I will get back to flying and I’ll feel more satisfied with things, but I get so damn fed up with life when I can’t do my proper job. I’ve been in this country over a year now, as you well know, and in all this time I have done two real operations. Stinks doesn’t it?

Some scum has stolen the writing pad you sent me, with the eight or ten pages of the ‘book’, I had started so I’m afraid you’ll have to hang on until I track it down. It is most annoying because I can’t replace it, aside from the fact that you gave it to me.

The things you sent in your Xmas parcel are of constant use darling and I think of you every time I wash – the little toilet case has become part of my daily life now and I’d be lost without it. The crib board has helped to pass many a weary hour and won me many an honest (?) shilling. Of course the grub has long since dissappeared, but the memory still lingers and it was certainly grand while it lasted.

Tell me how you’re getting on with the nursing, my love, and how your life in Van. goes on. I’m very glad you have chosen nursing to study and I hope you don’t find the going too tough.

I’ll crawl into bed, or bunk, now and dream about you, with prayers for a long letter soon to fill the empty spots.

God bless you and keep you my darling.

All my love,
Den.