The Second World War had been under way for a year when Marie and John Williamson welcomed two English brothers to join them for the duration of the conflict. Marie and John, who lived with their own two children in a small house in north Toronto, had met the boys' mother, Margaret Sharp - a distant cousin of Marie - just once. Nobody had any idea how long the war would last. What were they getting themselves into? Nevertheless, all Canadians, Marie was convinced, wanted to do their bit for Britain. Marie wrote over 150 letters to Margaret Sharp between August 1940 and May 1944, imagining that she could make Margaret feel she was still with her children. She shepherded the boys through education decisions and illnesses, eased their adaptation to a strange new life, and rejoiced when they embraced unfamiliar winter sports. The letters brim with detail about food shortages and rationing, family holidays, the family's efforts to cope with the financial implications of two extra mouths to feed, their involvement in their church, and the games and activities that kept them occupied. Marie's letters reflect the lives and concerns of a particular family in Toronto, but they also reveal a portrait of what was then Canada's second-largest city during wartime.