He and his wife Mary live comfortably in west London and as I drove to their address I was pretty sure, based on an earlier phone conversation, that I’d only have to ask a question or make a comment and he’d take over from there.
Shortly after we shook hands I asked him about his time in Halifax (where my father had trained), and his lengthy story, dating back to the 1940s, began.
He referred to a scrapbook that Mary had put together after he’d retired from his senior position at the University of Western Ontario and in it was their wedding photo, and standing right beside him as best man was none other than... one of my father’s best friends from his navy days - Chuck Rose.
[Front: Unidentified, Chuck Rose, Doug Harrison: photo by Bob Berger]
I found the scrapbook interesting to some degree, but the picture of Chuck and one other group photo from Halifax was as close as I got to feeling I was sitting beside a man who actually knew my father.
Before leaving him with the books containing stories from his mates in Combined Operations (with the hope they might spark a memory or two he had locked away that included my dad), his patient wife said something that I thought might lead to a very interesting discovery and coincidence.
***
Did you see that coming?
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