Honour as Part of Delegation

Interviewer: Having family members and your grandfather serve, it’s indeed an honour for you to be able to be part of the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and travel to France to commemorate that. As a Veteran with the pride that you do have and as a delegate for this journey across, tell us how you feel about being all a part of this?

I am extremely honoured to be a part of the 100th anniversary. I was really fortunate enough that a number of years ago, 2007, my regimental association travelled to Vimy as part of their battlefield tour and we were able to attend the 90th celebrations. And that was a huge impact on me for wanting to attend the 100th and I never thought I would be able to financially and scheduling and all of that. And I really truly believe that things happen for a reason and I was part of our regimental association executive working as the historian and I am a bit of a history buff. I love my regimental histories and the stories and so when they were looking for someone to go overseas they said write up someone you think is a deserving member to go. I told the story of my grandfather, service in World War I, and how much of an impact that had had on me and his time in Vimy and, you know, I passed it on I let the executive decide who they were going to send and I was fortunate enough to be nominated and it’s an honour. This experience has been a bit overwhelming. We’re treated very much more like we talked earlier like a rock star. You don’t feel like you deserve the honour. We were simply doing our job. We volunteered for it, it’s not like someone made us go. I mean we knew what we were getting ourselves into and we made that choice and we made that service.