A CHEERY PATIENT

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13750, 25 April 1918, Page 6

A CHEERY PATIENT

NINE OPERATIONS. Rev. J. J. North, Christchurch, has received a remarkable. letter from one of the men on the Poll of Honour of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church. It is in acknowledgment of the receipt of a Christmas parcel from the church. The writer says: Your kind letter of October 3 duly reached me. I have been unable to" answer it before. It is winter here now, and you will forgive me if the black clouds seem all blackness—still, there's a beacon light ahead, and I follow the gleam. Christmas Day I had an operation—my eighth. I was unconscious from 8 p.m. till 2 o'clock next morning. Never have I. been nearer the gates of heaven. J fortification had set in. Vet for the second time since being lucre I have bden literally dragged back tc life again, surely for seme better purpose. Eight of my wounds are nicely healed, but two remain a source of perpetual annoyance, and, of course, the smashed up leg is anything but recognisable. I have been on: my back five months now in bed, still 1 have only one regret and that is that I fear 1 shall never join my beloved comrades in the fight for freedom and right. Not that lam in love with fighting, or long for another winter on the Somme, but where men are needed I want to be. If we can smile through suffering, anguish and tears, you must. Keep the dear borne folks smiling, that is all we need, (tod bless and keep you all.—Gratefully yours, \V. V. Pule. P.S.—My ninth operation is to-mor-row. Cheero.