Life's Too Short to Cry By Tim Vigors
Remembrance Day takes place on Wednesday next week. It’s a time when we honour the sacrifices made by the men and women who served for their country. Silent tribute is the traditional way of recognizing their selflessness. Reading is another way that we can keep the memory of those sacrifices alive. Your local library has a large selection of books written by and about people who served their country in times of war and peace.
“Life's Too Short to Cry” is an autobiography chronicling the adventures of Tim Vigors, DFC, a fighter pilot who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. Using his log book and memory, Vigors put together an account of his childhood, enlistment, and early years of military service. During the course of the war, he learned to fly Spitfires, saw service over Dunkirk, flew during the Battle of Britain, and was shot down in the Far East. The book concludes in 1942, when he was shot down and ended up on sick leave as a result of injuries sustained during the crash. Although the book does not reveal what happened to him, readers will be relieved to learn that Vigors recovered and spent the rest of the war in India. He retired from the RAF in 1946 and devoted his life to managing and breeding race horses. Vigors died in 2003.
His account is an honest, warts and all, story told from the perspective of his younger self. Only nineteen years old during his first flight, he recalls feeling "extreme fear which temporarily froze my ability to think. This was quickly replaced by an overwhelming desire for self-preservation". On another occasion, roused from his bed after an evening spent drinking and carousing, Vigors took to the air wearing scarlet pyjamas and a green silk dressing-gown.
“Life’s Too Short To Cry” is part of the Isis Reminiscence Series of books that publishes real-life stories in large print format. Other titles in the series that recount lives lived during the Second World War are “Changing Course: The Wartime Experiences of a Member of the Women's Royal Naval Service, 1939-1945” by Roxane Houston, a poignant account of her time as a Wren; “You'll Die in Singapore” by Charles McCormac, a compelling account of one of the most horrifying and amazing war-time escapes; “Pavements to Ploughed Fields: An Evacuee on a Norfolk farm 1939-1948” by Len Brown, describes how Brown was evacuated from London to rural England at the age of ten; “Young Man, You'll Never Die” by Merton Naydler, who joined the RAF at the age of nineteen and flew Spitfires and Hurricanes until 1946.
The Library’s online catalogue is available on the internet at www.city.kawarthalakes.on.ca/library and allows you to place a hold on any item in the system.
Linda Kent is the Chief Librarian at the City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library
