by Rebekah Hunter –
He gently folds the jacket bearing memories from another time and another place: Wartime, some 70 years ago.
With great patience he explains to me the significance of the two gold caterpillar brooches pinned to the lapel. They represent the two times he was shot down as an Air Force pilot while completing 41 dangerous night missions, bailing from a burning plane and landing behind the lines of enemy territory. The brooch of boots with wings is pinned to the opposite lapel, signifying his safe escape to his homeland.
He is Norman Reid, a dignified man with a soft voice and gentle demeanor belying a sharp intelligence. He is a well educated man with a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a M.Sc in Structural Engineering. He is also a World War II veteran, an air navigator and multi-engine pilot. At 93 years of age he impresses me with his factual retelling of his wartime story in perfect chronological order. Beside him sits Tess, his lovely wife of 70 years. That’s right – 70 years of marriage and still devoted to each other.
I ask him about the friends he made during his time in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He responds with sadness to be one of the few veterans left; who else can really understand what it was like to lose comrades and family members, to be on the run for months in a foreign land. Norman was a young man barely out of his teens, hiding under hay stacks and in shepherds’ huts, constantly on the move for fear of being discovered and killed.
He wishes that he and his peers had known more about how to deal with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Did you know that it isn’t uncommon for those who have endured wartime to still have nightmares in their 80s and 90s?
Reflecting on the past can help us to better understand and connect with our elders. Most of us have grandfathers or great-grandfathers who lived and fought during the world wars. And what about the women? If they weren’t serving as nurses tending to the wounded they took over the men’s jobs, the factory and office jobs, the burden of running farms and caring for their children on their own. Rations; potato peel soup; recycling anything possible; blackouts and bombings – this was an anxious and scary time in our collective history.
Today we enjoy a time of relative peace here in Canada. It’s a blessing, and it can be fleeting. Our generation may not fully comprehend what it meant to live through a world war, but we can learn about it and reflect on it.
Take a moment to visit with the elderly, in your family or in your community. Retirement homes are always happy to have volunteers stop by and spend some time sharing conversation and companionship with their residents. Let’s encourage our children to see the elderly as people like them with a story worthy of being told and heard. Let’s be the connection between the generations and learn from each other.
Our worlds may be different but our dreams remain the same. In the words of Andy Rooney: “The best classroom is at the feet of an elderly person.”
Remembrance Day Events in Sidney: 10:30 a.m. Parade of Veterans, starting at the Mary Winspear Centre and ending at the Cenotaph in front of the Town Hall. Service includes two minutes of silence, wreath laying and a flypast.
Remembrance Day Events in Saanichton: 11 a.m. Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Peacekeeping Memorial Stone Cenotaph (Central Saanich Municipal Hall) under the half-mast flags.
Photo by www.nuttycake.com.
