Eileen Hendrie was losing hope, so when she saw the Facebook message and the attached photo she couldn’t hold back her emotions.
“I was alone in my hotel room, but I just shouted ‘Yes!’” she said. “I was smiling from ear to ear.”
Hendrie has been assisting with a project to honour five Canadian soldiers who died when their plane crashed near Zuilichem in The Netherlands in 1944. The goal of the project was to add pictures to the soldiers’ graves with some information about their lives.
The group had tracked down pictures of four of the airmen, but had not had any luck in finding one of 23-year-old Flying Officer William Murphy from Georgetown. All they had was a couple of grainy reproductions of photos from stories in the Toronto Star.
Hendrie had almost given up hope, but refusing to give in, she gave it one last shot when she sent an email to HaltonHillsToday.
“I thought the chances were remote,” said Hendrie, who lives in Zaltbommel, about 12 kilometres west of where Murphy’s Halifax bomber crashed.
It had only been three days since the story appeared online when Hendrie received the message with a black and white photo of Murphy. The message came from Murphy’s great niece, Alexandra Henry.
“I was really surprised,” Hendrie said. “It just shows the power of social media. It really has shrunk the world.”
She was particularly happy for Piet Stoel, who has spearheaded the project and has been maintaining the soldiers’ graves for almost 30 years. Hendrie said Stoel hopes to create information boards for airmen who lost their lives helping to liberate The Netherlands. Boards would be placed near bike paths, as close as possible to where their plane crashed.
“The Dutch people are extremely grateful and we want to bring more information to young people about what happened to these soldiers,” Hendrie said. “This group wants to ensure their memory is kept alive.”
The pictures, along with information about the soldiers, will be added to their graves in preparation for Dodenherdenking (Dutch Remembrance Day) on May 4.
