在“国殇日(Remembrance Day)”到来之际，Cambridge公立图书馆邀请本地有名作家Tess Bridgwater谈二战中的生活体验。据介绍Tess Bridgwater在加拿大生活了40年，她是英国移民，获奖无数的自由撰稿人，曾经为许多报刊，包括Thomson Newspapers，The Toronto Star，Metroland publication等投稿，并且为加拿大、美国和英国杂志撰写文章。
在活动上，Tess Bridgwater主要推介了她的书，标题叫做“Finding My Footprints in Sarum”。这是Tess Bridgwater回顾自己生活的书，当天活动当然就是回顾她孩童时期的生活。Tess Bridgwater很清楚地记得，在D-Day，也就是1944年6月6日诺曼底登陆的前一天晚上的情形。
当时，她的老家Southampton，大街上到处都是大兵和战车，主要是美国大兵，个别是加拿大士兵。小孩与大兵相处十分融洽，他们大多给小孩糖果吃，在那个年代，那可是很吸引人的Treat。那个时候，Tess Bridgwater上小学一年级，她还清楚记得一个大兵帮她修好了自行车，尽管她已经不能再骑了。那个大兵说，他就有一个与她年龄相当的女儿在家。后来才知道，在D-Day前一天，一些重要人物，包括英国国王George五世，英国首相Winston Churchill和欧洲联军高级指挥官(Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe)Eisenhower将军，在那一晚秘密到访并做战前动员。
在活动上，Tess Bridgwater让图书馆工作人员读了一段她妈妈Vera Woolacott在91岁时，回忆这一天写下的文字：
“I will remember the night of the D Day invasion. I was living at the time in a village about 7 miles from Southampton. We had troops, chiefly Americans based there at the time. The atmosphere had been tense for days, with many vehicles camouflaged in the woods.
This particular night of D Day was a lovely evening. We had all been expecting something to happen for days, but somehow I guessed this was the night. I was looking out of my bedroom window. Soldiers were playing a ball game in the middle of the road, which was sealed off, except for residents. We had tanks and various army vehicles standing at the ready ouside my house and in the surrounding streets. One interesting vehicle was called a “Duck”. It looked like a tank but could be used as a boat and caused a lot of interest.
At about 9 o’clock that night, suddenly a hush fell over the neighbourhood and all of a sudden, they covered all the vehicles over with an enormous camouflaged net like a huge fishnet. I went to bed, and unable to sleep. I could hear a lot of planes flying overhead. All was very quiet now, but by morning all had disappeared. They had all slipped quietly into the night, many of them never to return.”
在活动上，绝大部分听众与Tess Bridgwater年龄差不多，或者从她们父母嘴里了解这段历史。大家回顾这段生活时，当然没有感受到恐惧和悲伤，相反，她们感受到平静和乐趣。当警报响起，躲在地库或防空洞里时，她们的感受就是“又不用上学”；假若发生在学校，老师们也会组织她们在防空洞里唱歌，忘记周遭发生的一切。
不过，大家都清楚，战争是很残酷的，和平才是人类所需要的！假若有读者对该书感兴趣，亚马逊上可以购买电子书。
