Nadin: That was a very touching story. Sometimes we forget that these soldiers and civilations are real people put into a conflicted cesspool.

I had an uncle-in-law who was in the second wave at Juno Beach. He never said much, but one Christmas--with a little too much alcohol--he opened up. He saw some bad things.

My uncle returned to Canada. He met and married my aunt and ran a successful business.

My uncle's brother was also in the second Juno wave and fought inland. He came back a broken man: alcohol, veneral disease, not fully employed, eventual suicide.

War is terrible on our collective psychology.

I have been sending a few your articles to my relatives in western Ukraine. They seem suspiciios of all propoganda.

I too was suspicious of your earlier articles. Hopeful thinking? But it seems you have had the best pulse on this war. You have been ahead of the professional journalists--and from so far away.