Maitland enlisted in the war in 1917. Luckily for him, he had experience working with animals, so instead of enduring the hardships of the battlefields, he became a part of the Forestry Corps, working with horses to clear forests, providing the lumber to create trenches in France. After contracting tuberculosis and returning to Ontario, a doctor suggested that the dryer climate of Western Canada might help his lungs. So off Mait went to Saskatchewan.

In 1924, Dora's widowed Grandmother decided to visit her daughter Edith in Winnipeg. I suppose in those days, it was not considered proper for old ladies to travel alone, so it was decided that Dora would accompany her Grandma on the train. I'm not sure the reason why, but Dora didn't want to spend three months in Winnepeg with her Aunt and cousins. She was left with a quandry: what would she do for those three months? Someone suggested that she should continue travelling to Regina and stay with Wiletta Wilson, who grew up