Heather Latter
Dawn Sharpe never knew her biological father. In fact, Donald Keith Nelson died during World War II before she was born.
But the Edmonton resident now has a piece of the father she never knew after receiving some of his war medals, trinkets, and old letters, which were discovered here in Fort Frances last month.
“It’s been quite the adventure, but I’m glad we were able to return the items to the rightful owner,” said Sherri Loveday, who works at Suds and Tubs on Portage Avenue, where the old treasures were found in a dugout under the floorboards.
Although she felt guilty, Loveday said she began reading some of the letters in order to find out who the items belonged to.
“Then I just got so involved in the story,” she added.
The letters were written by Sharpe’s mother, Helen, to her grandparents, Albert and Jessie Nelson, who lived in Bergland at the time.
Loveday indicated Helen began writing around the time that she went to Quebec to marry Keith Nelson in January, 1944.
“She wrote a letter to his parents saying she arrived that morning and were looking at bridesmaid dresses,” Loveday recalled.
“And then a couple weeks later, [she] writes a letter saying they’re married, wishing [his parents] were there, and describing her ring.
“She sounded so excited.”
Loveday noted Helen then wrote to Nelson’s parents on Valentine’s Day to tell them that he, a pilot officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force, had been deployed overseas.
“She wrote that she hadn’t heard from him since he left and that she felt something is wrong,” Loveday said.
Nelson was killed on March 5, 1944 near Iceland and buried there.
Meanwhile, Helen continued to write to her husband’s parents.
“In April, I found a letter saying how tough it is living life without him,” Loveday remarked. “That it must be hard for [his parents] with Easter coming, saying she had fainted in church and things were really tough.
“By this time, I was so into it, I was teary-eyed,” Loveday admitted, citing Helen’s letter continued by saying, “I was wondering how you’d feel being called Grandma and Grandpa.”
“And then I started bawling,” she said, noting she began digging and digging through the boxes trying to go by the dates on the envelope to find out what happened next.
“I found one [dated] in June,” she said. “There’s probably lots in between; it’s just one I grabbed and it was [from] a man writing on Helen’s behalf.”
Helen was in the hospital and very sick. She had had seven blood transfusions.
“And now I’m thinking the baby died, she probably died,” Loveday said.
Loveday then enlisted the help of Maxine Howarth, whose mother-in-law had owned the Suds and Tubs building at the time and had been good friends with Jessie Nelson.
“[Howarth] called me and said that Helen has a daughter and her name is Dawn,” Loveday recounted.
“That was it—I was bawling.”
Howarth made several phone calls and was able to track down Dawn Sharpe in Edmonton.
The pair spoke on the phone and the items were promptly mailed to her.
Sharpe received the old letters and several medals, including Nelson’s Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, Defence Medal, and The War Medal 1939-1945, along with his air force ring, his passport, his diary, and a Bible.
“I was very surprised and it’s just so wonderful,” enthused Sharpe.
“It’s like looking at my history.”
She noted she always was afraid to ask her grandmother to talk about the past because she didn’t want to upset her. In fact, Sharpe didn’t know she was adopted by her stepfather until she was 15 years old.
She didn’t know anything about her biological father.
But Sharpe indicated the Nelsons always were a part of her life.
“My parents just included them like grandparents,” she explained. “And I can remember asking my mom why do we have three grandparents and everyone else has two?”
Her mother had told her that the Nelsons had one son who was killed in the war and they didn’t have anyone else. It was the truth, yet Sharpe didn’t know the Nelsons were her paternal grandparents back then.
“My dad [stepfather] was very protective about me finding out. He didn’t want me to know until I was old enough,” she said, noting she had two stepsisters who didn’t resemble her much.
“I didn’t know anything about my real dad,” she added, although she was named after him. “But a lot of people who meet me on my dad’s side say I look so much like my father.”
Sharpe is learning more about her father now that she’s read the letters her mother wrote weekly to her grandparents.
She has fond memories of Fort Frances growing up here each summer. Not only did the Nelsons live here, but Sharpe’s stepfather, Ed Tribe, also was from Fort Frances.
“I went to camp there and I still have a very good friend there. She was Sandra Gadd at the time,” Sharpe recalled.
But Sharpe hasn’t been back to Fort Frances since her grandmother passed away in 1996.
She, herself, has three grandsons, aged five, three, and two, and she told her son that he should take the box of letters, medals, and trinkets when she’s done with them.
“I think the boys would like to have them one day,” she reasoned.
