mona parsons
life-size
© 2017 nistal prem de boer
Unveiling Mona, May 5th, 2017
Mona Parsons, born in Nova Scotia, met Willem
Leonardt in New York, where she was a dancer and
an actress.
They married and moved to Holland, where they were
living when Holland was invaded by the Germans in
1940.
They got involved in hiding downed Allied airmen and
were betrayed. She was condemned to life
imprisonment.
However, when her jail got bombed, she managed to
escape and to walk back to Holland through Nazi
Germany.
In Holland she was found by a Canadian Regiment,
also from Nova Scotia.
Her husband did not survive long after the war and
she moved back to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, where she
married a Canadian officer.
In a letter to her parents dated 5th May, 1945, she
wrote: ‘The joy is almost too much to bear’…
It is this moment, the liberation of Holland, that I am
portraying in my sculpture.
The story of Mona was retrieved from obscurity by
Andria Hill of Wolfville, Nova Scotia. The sculpture has
been created to honour Mona and with her all the
women that brought great and unknown sacrifices in
WW II and all wars.
Unveiling Mona, May 5th, 2017
Unveiling Mona, May 5th, 2017
Mona in China, where she was cast
Unveiling Mona, May 5th, 2017
Unveiling Mona, May 5th, 2017
Unveiling Mona, May 5th, 2017