Creative spelling from a soldier

Sometimes words are not spelt in the best way to convey their meaning. This soldier made at least two of them more interesting.

In today's Independent, there was a heartbreaking letter written by a soldier to his family to be delivered to them if he died. He showed courage and maturity extraordinary for his age - 18, and realised how important this letter would be in helping his parents and brothers to deal with his death.

His spelling, like Winnie the Pooh's, was a bit wobbly, but the poor guy probably never imagined in his wildest dreams that this letter would be read by so many people he had never met.

Two of the words he used made me see them with new eyes.  He said "we wont mention that to any ‘higherarcy'". Does this not convey much more imaginatively the meaning to him of hierarchy than the word spelled correctly would have done? I like that very much.

The other phrase I particularly enjoyed was "damn right determination". I don't know whether this young soldier was having a laugh - I hope so. I am definitely going to borrow that phrase which is, after all, not a cliché (yet) but is so strong and expressive.

The death of such a young soldier is a terrible thing, but this one left a legacy that will be treasured by more people than he realised.

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