Dear Sir,

My husband and I visited your lovely country in late May of this year. Although we classified the trip as a holiday, it held an additional and very special purpose.

Between October 10 and 17, 1955, my parents, Gene and Helen Lohnes, honeymooned in Bermuda. At the time, my father was a reporter with the Peterborough Examiner, a daily newspaper in Ontario, Canada. Being a practical person, he wrote a four-part article about the honeymoon, and it was published in the Peterborough paper. He had very positive things to say about their visit.

Nearly 70 years later, we tracked down the original articles through the Trent Valley Archives. We studied the articles, and listed the many places they visited during their stay. Then, when we arrived in Bermuda, we sought to visit as many of the same places as we could. The weather was not totally co-operative that week, so we did miss a few of the spots, but we managed to visit many of them. When possible, we attempted to recreate some of the photos they had taken all those years ago. This Christmas, my gift to my two sisters will be a small book that contains the original articles, as well as numerous photos to supplement the text.

Dad mentioned in his article that, through the courtesy of managing editor Gene Lines, he had been given a tour of The Royal Gazette. This was unfortunately one of the places we did not have time to visit. We did, however, read The Royal Gazette while there, and we took papers home as souvenirs.

Both my parents passed away from cancer, and in 2022, I had breast cancer diagnosed. I underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and have ongoing treatments. This trip was part of my journey towards healing, but it was also a loving tribute to my parents, Gene and Helen.

I thought you would be interested to hear this, and to know that Bermuda and your newspaper were part of both their memories and mine.

MARILYN LOHNES

Ontario, Canada