Description
Returning home, Mr. Cole finds out that he has TB and is unable to travel with his fellow comrades.
Elmer Cole
Mr. Elmer Cole was born in Roche Percee, Saskatchewan on December 22, 1919. At age 15 he started working and left school with a grade eight education. In 1940 he joined with the South Saskatchewan Regiment taking basic training in Winnipeg and in Feb. 41 he came back to Brandon, Manitoba for mechanical training, switching over to The Calgary Tanks as a trooper on the Churchill tanks. Mr. Cole travelled overseas to England where he was given more training until the summer of ’42 when the Dieppe Raid occurred. Mr. Cole fought through the battle only to surrender with other Canadian soldiers where he became a POW until ’45 when they were set free. After returning to Canada, Mr. Cole worked with the Department of National Defence, then carried on as a mechanic but with the strong desire to always be a wheat farmer, he and his wife bought a farm in Oak bank, Manitoba until he retired at the young age of 54. Mr. Cole and wife Isabel adopted two boys. Now widowed, Mr. Cole spends much of his time playing cards and socializing with residents of his retirement home as well as spending time with his grandchildren. In 2005 Mr. Cole was presented with an Honorary Life Member certificate of the Kiwanis Club in his local community. Presently, at age 97, Mr. Coles continues to enjoy a relaxed and healthy lifestyle.
Transcript
It was quite a little let down to me when they told me I had TB and it was the hospital ship I was sent home with and I wasn’t with my friends, you know, with the bunch I was with and the same on the railroad, instead of with a bunch of people you were just with a few who were more or less alone you might say going across Canada. We thought we’d never get home. Ya it was kind of, it was a let down ya. TB in those days anyhow, you know, was contagious they thought and like the doctor said, “You’re not gonna die!”