When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Parsons joined the resistance, dismissed her servants and used their quarters to hide downed Allied airmen until they could be smuggled out of the country. She did this for about a year, but was eventually caught and arrested by the Gestapo. She was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by firing squad, but her sentence was eventually commuted to life, with hard labour. She was transferred to prison in Germany where she remained until March 1945 when the prison camp she was in was bombed by Allied forces. Parsons escaped with a Dutch woman, posing as the younger lady's mentally-challenged aunt so that she wouldn't have to talk. Although she was fluent in German, Parsons knew that her Canadian accent would give her away. The two managed to make their way across Germany together, though they got separated near the German/Netherlands border. Parsons crossed into the Netherlands and was fortunate to meet a sympathetic farmer who, when she told him she was Canadian, took her to the nearest British troops. Astonishingly, it was the North Nova Scotia Highlanders.
After the war, Mona Parsons was reunited with her husband, though he never recovered fully from his imprisonment. After his death, she returned to Nova Scotia, remarried, and lived out the rest of her life in Wolfville, not very far from the community where she was born.
I spent the day with family, visiting the Museum of Natural History and Shubie Park.