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Description: From inside her prison cell in Lille, France, Dorothy Borutti vowed she would embrace the first liberator who came to free her and her hometown of Le Touquet (too-kay) from the clutches of the German occupiers. She’d been jailed as a political prisoner for listening to the English radio. Across the English Channel in Britain, Captain Sandy MacPherson was creating a more just Court Martial system for the Canadian Army, though itching to directly support Canadian troops in combat. And that’s how he found himself in Le Touquet, France, in the arms of Dorothy Borutti.

Sandy and Dorothy’s story follows their separate journeys in Canada and France, and their wartime efforts to return the world to freedom.

After the war, Dorothy followed Sandy back to Canada, where he ruled on significant cases as an esteemed Saskatchewan Queen’s Bench judge. Dorothy would embrace her new country of Canada while serving as a lifelong ambassador for her homeland of France. Theirs is a story of war, love, and peace. A story for the ages. Their daughter, former Canadian journalist Romie Christie, shares glimpses of her parents’ captivating lives through family stories, journal entries, and historical records.

In September 2024, the town of Le Touquet reenacted the 80th anniversary of the town’s liberation by Captain Sandy MacPherson, and they renamed their museum roundabout in honor of Sandy and Dorothy’s first encounter there in 1944. 

​978-1927570-84-5; 6”x9”; 224 pages; 72 photos and 3 maps. © ​2023; Ages 13 to Adult. Nonfiction; Biography; Canadian Military History; Military Veterans; Short stories; Anecdotes;  Canadian history; Second World War; Saskatchewan; Canadian author.

Curriculum: Canadian Military History; Second World War; Heroes.

Also available as an e-book from Kobo, Apple, Amazon, and Overdrive. Search e-book vendor site by book title or author name. 

About the Author: Romie Christie is a retired journalist who produced CBC Radio shows for almost 20 years, bringing hundreds of stories to the airwaves. She provided stories for national CBC current affairs programs including Morningside, As it Happens, Cross Country Check-Up, Sunday Edition, Sounds Like Canada, and The Current. She later worked with the Mental Health Commission of Canada for over a decade to benefit people with lived experience of mental illness. Upon retirement, Romie began digging into her deceased father’s briefcase of essays, learning about his army days and later reflections as a Saskatchewan judge. At the same time, she pulled out her mother’s old suitcase filled with wartime documents from France – where she’d grown up – and pre-war photographs. Romie began weaving her parents’ two stories together into what has become this book. Romie loves nature, laughter, and seeing the magic in the world around her. She resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Responses from Readers: 

• “Wonderful story and so beautifully told.”
• “Beautifull, elegantly written.”
• “It was a page-turner. “
• “It’s quite an amazing story, and you did a wonderful job of bringing it to life in book form.”
• “A marvelous book. This teaches me a lot about acceptance, hope, and courage.”