My special moment at this year’s CNE was meeting a 93-year-old veteran in his motorized wheelchair, with his wife, at the Tim Hortons Seniors’ Breakfast.
They arrived late after we had shut down the coffee line. The lady asked me if we could still fit in her husband, a WWII veteran.
How could I refuse? We chatted in line and he told me of landing at Dieppe in 1942, being captured and spending three years in a German POW camp — Stalag B8.
I asked him how they were treated and he said, “Bloody awful, but I came home a better man and to a free country.” I told him that I had come from Ireland 33 years ago and how much I loved my adopted country, which was a much better place today, because of men like him.
When the couple were leaving his wife hugged me and thanked me for making him feel so special.