Friendships
Friendships developed not only among station personnel who were thrown together for training, but also between Air Force members and civilians. Some met through sport competitions, church services, dances and recreational activities. Other people became friends when they shared housing. Air Force families and single men who rented rooms or apartments in Summerside during the war kept in touch with residents over the years, sometimes with visits, but more often through correspondence.
Bruce Powell and Wanda Wyatt
A good example of a lifetime relationship was the one that was formed between Miss Wanda Wyatt of 85 Spring Street and boarder Bruce Powell. Bruce was a 27-year-old Pilot Officer who moved into the Wyatt spare bedroom with fellow officer John Bryant in September 1943. They soon made themselves at home playing bridge, reading, or listening to radio with Wanda and her sister Dorothy who were 48 and 50 at the time. The sisterly affection that the Wyatts felt for these two boarders (who paid $6 each per week) was particularly strong.
Numerous Air Force officers were invited to the Wyatt home, particularly those attending morning or evening services at St. Mary's Anglican Church. Many of them came repeatedly for meals or chats by the fire. The sisters carried on a prodigious letter campaign to these young men after they left Summerside. In the large number of letters received by the Wyatts, phrases such as "You will never know how much the hours spent in your lovely home have meant to me," "I really can't thank you enough", and "My heart will be there always" are indicative of the gratitude felt. Several mothers also wrote when their sons reported on the Wyatts' warm reception. One stated, "It does mean a lot to the mothers of these lads that people give them a little home life and I do sincerely thank you."
The special bond that developed with Bruce Powell and also with his friend John was maintained after the war. Bruce went home to Calgary in May 1945 where he married the next year. Wanda and Dorothy were sorry to see him leave and visited him and his wife Pam in 1947 when they attended an IODE meeting in Alberta.
Dorothy died in 1959 so the next time Wanda saw Bruce she was alone on a visit to Calgary and other areas of the west. They corresponded and sent photos over the years. In 1987 a planned visit by Bruce to Summerside was postponed when his wife died. A Christmas card sent by Wanda in December 1988 expressed her hope that he would still come. "Right now I am writing at a table in the room that you and John shared - and the extra folding bed is still in place. You will find little change in the house itself - so I am still hoping that you can manage a return visit to see your old friends and haunts in Summerside. The town's growing - but we are still Islanders - and this area remains the same."
He phoned Boxing Day to say that he would come that spring. He arrived for a week in April 1989 and Wanda referred to the visit in her diary as a "lovely reunion." They continued to remember one another with cards and letters to the end of Wanda's life at age 102 in 1998.
