Remembrance Day followup: Phone message - I trained with your dad

My wife handed me the phone last night after supper and said, “I saved a message that you’ll want to hear.”

My initial thought was, no I won’t. It’s likely some guy who wants to sell me vinyl siding. Or a truck load of cash in Nigeria.

But I could tell from my wife’s tone of voice and facial expression (she wasn’t rolling her eyes or pretending to strangle herself) that it was a message I’d want to hear.


“Hello. My name is Allan A. and I’m trying to reach the Gord Harrison who writes a column for The Londoner. I read the piece today about Remembrance Day and wanted to tell him I happened to be a member of the same naval group as his dad. Doug and I trained together in Stadacona in 1941, and later went overseas as volunteers and ended up in Combined Ops together.”

“If I’ve got the right Gord Harrison I’d like to meet him and chat about other events that relate to what he wrote in his column.”

Allan then left a phone number and address.

If you’ve read my recent column and even one or two of my recent posts you’ll know he reached the right person.

As I listened to the message, and after I put the phone down, I experienced a variety of emotions.


["Memories come back in floods": photo GAH]

Shock for one. I wasn’t expecting that type of call back.

I’m used to emails or occasional calls with more information or an opinion that relates to what I wrote.

But Allan’s phone call hit me in the stomach. He knew my dad.

And that was when my father was a young, raw recruit and several years before he started his family, about 8 years before I came along and 11 - 12 years before my earliest memories of him.

I also felt (strongly) there was a lot I didn’t know about my father and a golden opportunity to fill in some gaps was staring me in the face.

I went to collect the phone book to make sure I had Allan’s phone number written down correctly.

Then I composed myself before making the return call.

.