Thank you for your service - a letter of appreciation to Canadians from a survivor of the war in the Balkans

Letter to Cpl Scott Casey from Maria, received in 2017.

I would like to take a moment of your time on this Remembrance Day to thank you for your service and for helping people like me, although you probably don’t even realize it.  

My name is Maria, and I grew up in a small town not too far from Sarajevo, Bosnia. In 1992 when my hometown of Doboj fell to the Serbian forces, I was 11 years old. A good part of my life was stolen from me by the terror that soon engulfed everything around me. I won’t go into too much detail there because I know you've lived some of those terrors as well.

I want to thank you, and tell you that it is because of brave men like you that me and my family are alive today. I know that you probably wish you could have done more, or maybe you feel like you didn’t do enough. I was eleven, and I was angry, I wanted to fight, but they said I was too young and wouldn’t let me. I can’t imagine how you must have felt witnessing the horror and having your hands tied. 

But you know, you saved lives back then, lives that you didn’t even know about.  You came to hell and you stared in the face of evil and you said f*** you! And that’s all we needed, someone to acknowledge this wasn’t right and to hear our suffering. 

At a time when life was hopeless, seeing those blue helmets gave me hope, courage and strength.  I thought to myself, ok people know about us, they didn’t forget us, maybe I can hope for tomorrow, maybe this will end, maybe one day we will be happy again. You reminded me that there is a world and a life out there, where people weren’t killing each othe rover their religion, or some stupidity a bunch of cowardly men thought up of while safely tucked away from the horrors of war. 

You made me realize that not all people were bad. And believe me at that time I didn’t think there was any good left in anyone anywhere. Everyone in this war was looking to gain something. I saw the worst side of people on daily basis, regardless which side they were on.  Then you came to our hell and showed us what it's like to be good, selfless and courageous. It was crazy that you were just there to help us, with nothing to benefit from this, and you were smiling. You were our heroes. One day I swore I would be like you. 

And I know you have your own demons that you carry with you, and I am sorry for that. But don’t ever for a second think that you did not make a difference. Don’t ever think that we are not grateful. Don’t ever think that we will forget what you did for a small nation that no one gave a f*** about. We remember. 

Every day I am grateful that I got out, and that I am alive. It is all thanks to soldiers like you. 

Today I live in Toronto, Canada with my husband and our 3-year-* old daughter.  My parents and my brother are also in Canada, thanks to you. And the best part is I get to call this great country home. I’ve been a Toronto Police officer for the last 14 years.  For the last 4 years I have been a firearms instructor at our Toronto Police College.  Funny enough I'm pretty darn good with those firearms, I guess a few years in hell taught me something afterall. In the end, I can only hope that one day I make a difference in someone’s life like you did in mine. Although you never knew me, you helped me. 

Please live your life and be happy.  Enjoy the precious present, be strong and be resilient. If not, then we are just letting those evil men win, even 25 years later, and they can never win, not as long as we are standing. 

Please extend my thank you to all of those who served along side with you in Bosnia. 

Thank you for your service, your sacrifice, and for believing we were worth saving. 

I am forever in your debt. 

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