Hi John,

Well ... I thank you for that link. I followed it when I read your post here and have just made it back after browsing the site then reading all the letters of a WW1 Soldier from Gimli ... familiar names were mentioned. It's truly amazing to read these letters and to hear details of what this young man experienced, the highs and lows, and so sad that he passed away from tetanus Gimli is between where I was born and raised and where my dad was from (Riverton) Reading these letters brings these soldiers and families stories "home" to me because they "are" close to home... therefore "not strangers" to me. Small communities of people whose lives are so intertwined. I think this is why it boggles me. You don't know everyone in a big city ... but you do in small communities. Its personal more often than not. But the world IS getting smaller through communications and media ... our world is not so big that we can be so impersonal anymore ... is it? Raise that awareness to the level of a country ... or even world, and .... hmmmm .... It becomes "smaller" and people become more "personal" to us all the time ... food for thought?

That was me off on a tangent again : ...

Karmen (see the words about the young soldier whose letters I just read. He hailed from fishing farming community a spit across Lake Winnipeg from my maternal side family, and my Grandfather who served in CMR C.E.F.)