Sarnia's Carolyn Russell travelled to Holland this week with her husband and three grown children, to meet one of the last people who saw her father alive.
Carolyn Russell is joined (clockwise) by husband Ross Russell, sons Todd and Scott Carroll and daughter Jody Kukura at her father Ossie Cameron's grave site. Photo submitted.
Ossie Cameron was killed February 27, 1945 in World War II in Kleve, Germany, but was billeted in a home in Holland for the last few weeks of his life.
Russell says they've found the son of the mother who billeted her father.
"We're going to Groesbeek," says Russell. "We're going to meet Mr. Hendricks -- who was 16 and still remembers my father. He's going to take us to the house where my father stayed and I'm going to knock on that door."
How they made the connection is quite miraculous.
"We met a couple in Holland two years ago and they went to the cemetery on Christmas Eve with 75 volunteers and lit a candle on all of the 2,700 graves. When they went to light my dad's candle, they met Mr. Hendricks, who asked if he could help light the candle."
She says they stayed in touch with that couple for the past two years and have video chatted online with Mr. Hendricks. She says he doesn't speak English, but their friends translate for them.
"It's a 72-year-old story. Losing my dad in the war, I was [6 years old] and my brother was only 2 and our parents were young, and my mom was left to raise the two of us alone. Back then, that wasn't the norm. There were no daycare centres or anything like that. So, not having a dad... the older I got, I realized... I never had a hug, he never helped me with my homework. It's a huge thing. The supreme sacrifice that he made, with thousands and thousands of others, is why we have the freedom that we have today."
When the family landed in Amsterdam the pilot announced they were on board and would be visiting Cameron's grave, at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, together for the first time.
"I completely fell apart. Everyone on the plane clapped their hands," says Russell.
The Air Canada flight 824 crew sent them off with well wishes.
