A life-size sculpture of Mona Parsons, a Wolfville WWII heroine, will be unveiled at a public ceremony on May 5th.

WOLFVILLE NS – Nova Scotia WW2 hero Mona Parsons died 40 years ago without recognition. Her story was uncovered 20 years ago in the archives of Acadia University. Now her bravery in World War II is finally going to be commemorated.

The bronze sculpture of Parsons will be unveiled on the lawn of the Wolfville Post Office on Friday, May 5, 2017. Sculptor Nistal Prem de Boer has created a sculpture showing a jubilant emancipated Mona, commissioned by the Women of Wolfville.

Parsons was sentenced to death in 1941 for hiding Allied airmen in her and her husband’s house in The Netherlands near Amsterdam. She spent the rest of the war in forced labour camps in Nazi Germany, and then escaped by walking to the border.

Parsons was the only Canadian female civilian to be imprisoned by the Nazis and her bravery was unrecognized in Canada, until a play (1997) and a book about her exploits (2000) written by Andria Hill-Lehr. A Heritage Minute and a History TV documentary later documented her wartime heroism.  As Parsons’ tombstone in the town cemetery simply lists her as a “wife of”, the Women of Wolfville (2006) took up the need of a tribute in her honour.

The unveiling ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. where we will celebrate the 72nd  anniversary of the Liberation Day of the Netherlands and VE Day, May 9, 1945. We welcome everyone to share in this public event.