Canada

Canada is the setting of Alvin Roth’s military service and long rehabilitation after he was wounded in Europe. It becomes more than a place of refuge: the Canadian government’s support gives him a possible future there, while his eventual return to Newark brings the consequences of his injury back into the life of his family.

Military Service and Rehabilitation

Alvin served with the Canadian forces and was hospitalized in England after being wounded. When his family first learned what had happened, they knew few details beyond the fact that the wound was serious and that Alvin had lost a leg. His recovery unfolded over a long period in hospital, where Canadian army nurses trained him to walk unassisted with an artificial limb. He first left behind his wheelchair and then his crutches.

Alvin was discharged in January 1942. The Canadian government awarded him a monthly disability pension of $125, a little more than half of what Herman Roth earned each month from the Metropolitan, as well as $300 in separation pay. As a handicapped veteran, Alvin could receive further benefits if he remained in Canada. The country thus offered concrete means of support as he began life after military service.

A Possible Home

Service also gave Alvin a route to Canadian citizenship: foreign volunteers in the Canadian armed forces could become citizens immediately upon discharge if they wished. His uncle Monty urged him to stay, framing the choice partly as a response to Alvin’s dislike of the United States. The possibility made Canada a real alternative, not merely the place where Alvin had been treated.

Return to Newark

Alvin chose to return. Nearly a year after Charles A. Lindbergh took office, he travelled by overnight train from Montreal to Newark, accompanied by a Canadian Red Cross nurse. His return connected the Canadian period of service and rehabilitation to the family’s altered life in the United States. Before Alvin could adjust to the political changes that had taken place while he was away, his parents wanted him to have time to recover; they therefore planned to explain Sandy Roth’s work with Just Folks only after he had settled back in.