Dad At Large usually focuses on the light-hearted side of parenthood. But, in the month of Remembrance, here’s a letter I was asked to read last week at a “Lest We Forget” service at St Mary’s Church, in Norton, near Stockton-on-Tees...

December 17th, 1944

My dear little boys,

I am writing to you today, just a week before Christmas Eve, in the hope that you will get this little note at Christmas time. I won't be able to give you a Christmas present personally, but I do want you to know that I think of you all the time and feel very proud of the way you have been helping your mother while I am gone because it is hard for her to do everything.

I know that you would like to give me a present too, so I will tell you what you can do, and this will be your Christmas present to me. Every day, ask Mummy if there are any errands you can go on for her, and when there are errands to run, say "sure, Mummy" and give her a big smile. Then, during the day, go up to your room and look around. If there are toys scattered all around, or you left some of your clothes on the floor, pick them up. If you'll do these things for me, that will be the finest Christmas present you could give.

Well, my boys, I guess you often wonder why people fight and have wars, and why lots of Daddies have to be away at Christmas time. That's a hard question to answer. But you see, some countries, like Japan and Germany, have people living in them, just like some people you and I know. These people want to tell everybody what they can do and what they can't do. No one likes to be told how to live their life. I know that you certainly wouldn't like it if one of the boys in the neighbourhood tried to tell you what church you should go to, what school you should go to, and, particularly, if that boy would always be trying to beat up some smaller or weaker boy. And, unfortunately, the only way to make a person or a country like that stop those sorts of things is to fight them and beat them and teach them that being a bully is not the way to live and that we can't put up with it.

What does this all mean to you? Just simply this, my boys ¬- Dad doesn't want you ever to be a bully. I want you to to always fight against anyone who tries to be one. I want you to always help the smaller fellow, or the little boy who may not be as strong as you. I want you to always share what you have with the other fellow; and above all my boys, have courage to do the things that you think are right. Never run away from someone you may be afraid of - if you do, you will feel ashamed of yourself and, before long, you will find it easy to run away from the things you should stand up and fight against.

If you, and lots of other boys try to do the things that Dad has been talking about, it may be that people will not have to fight wars in the years to come, and then all the daddies of the world will be home for Christmas.

On the morning of February 20th, 1945, First Lieutenant Isacks was crouching in a foxhole on the island of Iwo Jima when he was wounded by Japanese mortar fire. Unconscious, with severe wounds to his head, he was evacuated to a hospital ship offshore.

He died the following day. He was 34 years old.

THE THINGS THEY SAY

MY thanks to Paul "Goffy" Gough who sent me a great line from his nephew Joel Hogg, who attends Sacred Heart Nursery in Hartlepool.

Asked if he would like to be a donkey in the nativity play, Joel replied: "No, but thank you for asking," and promptly negotiated his way up to the position of shepherd.

The boy is destined to go far.