GIRL’S GRATITUDE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 165, 10 April 1944, Page 5

GIRL’S GRATITUDE

Solomons Airmen’s Mascot Recovering (R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service.) BOUGAINVILLE.

When Miss Gloria Lyons, from her sick-bed in the Christchurch Public Hospital, answered the advertisement, from two young airmen, lonely for letters from girls back home, she little imagined that she had started a chain of events which was to transform completely the dreary prospect facing her. Stricken by tuberculosis of the spine, she was not fit to undergo the delicate bone operation which would soon have set her on the road to recovery, and she was resigned to a long stay of two years in hospital. How an R.N.Z.A.F. servicing unit in a forward area of the Pacific adopted her as their mascot and gave her name to a Warhawk fighter, was told in an article in the newspapers of the Dominion in January. What followed is best told by Miss Lyons herself. She writes to the senior n.c.0., on whose suggestion she became the servicing unit’s mascot:—"Y’otl may think me rather longwinded in answering your very welcome letter, but the truth of the matter is that I had an operation on February 15 —-a bone graft, where 5) inches of bone was taken from my leg mid put in my spine. I might add just here that I have you to thank for this also. You might think me crazy. Yes—l ant crazy, with gratitude. Help in Operation. "When I first came into the hospital I was told that never would I be in any condition for this operation, and that my stay would be for IS months to two years. Two days after my picture appeared in the paper my doctor told me I could have an X-ray and then he would operate. I have heard from several that 1 have only the newspaper article to thank for the tide turning as it did. This may or may not be true, but it certainly is very possible, and I want you to know how very, very grateful I am to you and all your boys for bringing me such happiness. When 1 answered tlie advertisement in our evening paper it was in my mind to bring, or do my best to bring, a little happiness in my own small way to some of the boys who are doing such a wonderful job of work overseas? Since the correspondence has grown into one big happy family, and you and the boys have done so much for inc I only wish I could do so very much more. So please realize how very grateful I am. “I am pleased to say that the operation was successful, and I may (if Fate is kind to me) have only another six months to lie on my back. All I am living for now is tlie end of those six months, and then to live all over again. 1 can well imagine how you, too, must feel, being away from everything which made up your life, and you, too, must be living for the day when you will be able to return to God’s Own Country and those you love. It will certainly be a great day. My very best wishes to you, am] lots of luck. Your very grateful mascot,—Gloria Lyons.”