Living in the house of a WW2 legend (#2)

A tiny bonus chapter based on and inspired by “The Color of Courage.” A first chance to get to know the characters and the new dual timeline series, “Timeless Agents.”

The Color of Courage: Sil’s Diary Entry - Introducing Secret Agent Lise

Vieux Port, Marseille, August 2004

Dear Grandpa Jack,

I hope you’re up there enjoying a nice pint of ‘Skull Attack’ with your mates while watching over me. I don’t know where to start since I arrived in Marseille two weeks ago to attend the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille. Can you imagine your little whippersnapper making the plunge and going abroad?

I love Marseille already, and I know you would too, with your fishery background. The Vieux Port, where I’m living, is bustling with life—fishing boats bobbing on the sparkling water, the scent of fresh seafood always in the salty sea air, and people from all walks of life filling the streets with chatter and laughter. It’s a beautiful chaos, and I can almost hear you chuckling, telling me to “embrace the mess, Silver, that’s where life happens.”

But Grandpa, it’s not just the city that has got me in its grips. I’ve hardly had time to explore it as I stumbled upon something extraordinary on the first day of my arrival. I found a suitcase filled with letters from a remarkable woman named Lise de Baissac. Can you imagine, I’m living in the house of a WW2 legend?

She was a courageous British secret agent during the war at the same time you landed on Gold Beach with the Welsh Fusiliers just a few miles away. If that isn’t coincidence!  While you scrambled up those steep Normandy cliffs fighting to liberate Europe, she was out there, close by, helping the Maquis obstruct the Nazis reaching you. Did you ever know about these secret agents who helped the Allies behind the lines? I can never ask you now.

Anyway, I’ve been so involved in reading Lise’s letters that I wanted to send you a letter as well. I wish you could have met Lise, Grandpa. Her bravery and cleverness remind me so much of you. It must be a generational thing. Today we’re much more occupied with our own survival to even think of going out there to defend our nation. At least, that’s how I feel it.

She wrote these post-war letters to her beau, Henri Villameur, an artist (yes, yes!) to tell him about the secret missions she undertook during the war. She wanted him to know the truth about her “illegal” actions, so he’d know what he was getting into before marrying her. You’d have loved that candid approach!

But I’m sure you’d also have loved her spirit and tenacity. She would’ve been a perfect addition to your Band of Welsh Brothers, as you called them. She was the embodiment of your life motto, “Just one foot in front of the other, Silver, and you’d eventually get there.” Or in Lise’s words, “I needed cold-blooded efficiency for long weary months more than heroism”.

When I looked her up on the Internet, I found an interview with her from a couple of years back. She passed away in this house this spring, you see. Even in her nineties she still radiated that cool courage you so admired in people. Seeing her, I felt an overwhelming sense of connection, not just to Lise, but to you, too. The indomitable spirit that refuses to back down in the face of tyranny. Or as you taught me, “Courage doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid, Silver. It means you keep going despite the fear.”

Finding Lise’s letters feels like a gift, as if you’re still guiding me from somewhere. I truly hope some form of bravery also runs in my blood, that you passed down a bit of your courage to me. I don’t know what it will be yet, but I’m going to honor Lise in some way, and thus honor you as well through my work as an artist.

I miss you every day, Grandpa, but these letters make me feel closer to you, and I’m on my own path now. Finally! Thank you for teaching me to see the true spirit of this world, to find the stories that connect us through time and space. I’ll color them with courage.

With all my love,

Sil(ver)

Preorder your copy today and be a part of Sil’s story as she paints her future from Lise’s past, one courageous stroke at a time.