John Walker was young when the war broke out. When he was eligible to enlist, he did so with the 7th Armoured Division, a.k.a. the Desert Rats, a renowned tank regiment of World War II. The War took him all over Europe, from Italy to Holland. By D-Day, he was a tank commander, arriving at the beaches only a few days after the initial attack. After Germany’s defeat, he toured Europe as an army athlete, eventually returning home several months later. In 1985 he immigrated to Sarnia, Ontario, where he has lived ever since.

Only a small girl, Renata Meilleur remembers very little of the War. That which she does remember left her with life-long emotional scarring. Holland saw some of the worst of the war. When not foraging for scraps of food, the people of Holland were constantly being bombed and raided. It took years of recuperation to get back on its feet. My grandmother, as well as her father and mother barely escaped the War, nearly dying of starvation. 12 years after the War she and her family immigrated to Canada.