All My Love
and Then Some
The Letters of Cpl. Polly G. Meilman RCAF (WD)
to Her Parents, 1942-1944
Welcome
Welcome to the world of Polly Meilman, a young woman who wrote regularly to her parents while serving in the Women's Division of the RCAF during WWII. Throughout her training in Toronto and her posting to an airfoce base in Summerside, PEI, Polly wrote diligently to her parents about her life in the RCAF. She wrote on whatever paper was handy and whenever she could find a spare moment. Polly asked her mother to save her letters home as she wanted to write about her time in the air force some day. She filled the letters with detailed accounts of her life in the RCAF including her triumphs and frustrations. She retold conversations with friends, NCOs, and the boys she dated, with wry wit and humour.
Margaret Melhorn is Polly Meilman’s daughter. She kept the letters for thirty years after Polly’s death in 1990, vowing that she would go through them someday. Someday arrived in the form of the COVID-19 lockdowns, which gave her the time to compile and transcribe the letters, a number of which were undated or incomplete. Melhorn donated the original letters to the Canadian War Museum but, still not satisfied that she had done the letters justice, she began to work toward editing and publishing them. She describes the process as “a wonderful journey into a long-gone world and a chance to reawaken my mother’s voice.”
The book is available in paperback, hardcover and ebook from FriesenPress at FriesenPress
Image Gallery
BIO
Margaret Melhorn is Polly Meilman's daughter. After obtaining a BA in economics and history and a MA in economics she worked for over thirty years in public sector finance. She has written all her life, most of which has been technical writing for government. Now in her retirement Margaret has returned to her first love: history.
After living in the Northwest Territories for thirty-five years, Margaret now lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her husband.
IN THE PRESS
“All My Love and Then Some” makes an important contribution to Canadian history and we have Meilman, with the help of her daughter, Margaret Melhorn, to thank for it.