PEI

'I cried when I read it': Postcard connects Charlottetown home to D-Day

A postcard arrived in the mailbox of Charlottetown home recently, making a connection between that house and D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Postcard tells the story of a soldier who lived in the home who died in battle

The Juno Beach Association sent these postcards to 400 homes across Canada, the homes of Canadians who died in the first five days of the D-Day invasion. (Laura Chapin/CBC)

A postcard arrived in the mailbox of Charlottetown home recently, making a connection between that house and D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The postcard was sent by the Juno Beach Association as part of a project to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

Alana Sprague's postcard tells the story of Lance Cpl. John Bernard Murray. (Laura Chapin/CBC)

There were 903 Canadians killed during the first five days of the Allied invasion on the beaches of Normandy. The Juno Beach Association is sending postcards to the 400 homes that still remain where the soldiers were living when they enlisted, as a way to reconnect Canadians to this history.

Alana Sprague, lives in one of two homes in Charlottetown that received postcards, the only two on the Island.

"I cried when I read it. It just felt like such an emotional thing putting you in touch with history in such a physical way," said Sprague.

'I cried when I read it,' says Alana Sprague. (Laura Chapin/CBC)

"My son he's 16 years old. He knows some about war. He is very familiar with Remembrance Day. He's always participated in that, but for him to actually know that this gentleman lived here in this house, you know, it's emotional."

The postcard tells the story of Lance Cpl. John Bernard Murray. The 39-year-old Charlottetown man was killed in action June 7, 1944.

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With files from Island Morning