‘Dear Gladys’ brought smiles to Canadian troops stationed abroad

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A Newfoundland woman who made it her mission to write as many as 1,000 letters a month to Canadian troops stationed abroad has died at age 91.

Gladys Osmond, or "Dear Gladys," as she was known in the Canadian Armed Forces, penned a large volume of heartfelt notes to soldiers, sailors and aviators for more than a quarter century.

As time wore on, e-mail increasingly replaced handwritten missives, but Ms. Osmond's resolve endured as she enlisted friends into a "Granny Brigade" to reach even more serving Canada in foreign posts. She slowed down in recent years after her eyesight began failing.

Her passing was marked by Canada's top military commander Friday. General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, said Ms. Osmond's "devotion and dedication" to the troops "was like no other" he's seen.

Gen. Lawson said members of the Canadian Armed Forces were with Ms. Osmond when she died on Jan. 14 in Springdale, Nfld.

"She showed us that Canadians truly cared and her words were known to lift spirits and bring smiles to faces around the world, even on the darkest of days."

Captain Carl Squires, wing operations officer at Royal Canadian Air Force Base 9 Wing Gander in Newfoundland, said Ms. Osmond's letters were chatty and colourful accounts of life in her hometown. "She would write about the little things that were happening in Springdale … For instance, how she saw two little birdies out on the back deck. Or something very simple, but that simplicity communicated her dedication and her love for the soldiers," Capt. Squires said.

As retired General Rick Hillier once said, this correspondence was a welcome connection to "normal life" for troops working amid violence and death.

It's hard to overstate what these unexpected letters meant to Canadian Armed Forces members working far from home, Capt. Squires said. It's one thing to receive letters or e-mails from family but even more striking to hear sincere good wishes from someone you've never met, he said. "To get a letter that's full of so much love from a stranger is what touched people."

This effort spawned many friendships that endured over the years, Capt. Squires said. An article in the Forces' publication Maple Leaf said that whenever a soldier wrote back, Ms. Osmond would place a star on a map of the world that hung on her bedroom wall and respond with a letter or card.

"A lot of people would write Gladys and people would share things with her that were very intimate, very personal and from their heart. They knew that the person receiving it on the other end cared and loved them. That is probably Gladys's greatest legacy," Capt. Squires said.

A former schoolteacher and later a member of the Salvation Army clergy, Ms. Osmond was honoured over the years for her work. She was inducted into the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador and Mr. Hillier, when he was chief of the defence staff, awarded her the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service.

It's estimated more than 400,000 letters were sent to Canadian Armed Forces members over three decades as a result of her efforts.