'He asked me to hold his hand ... I did, and he died'
Bernard Finestone, BCom'41, never discussed his time in the Second World War with his children, but now he trots out his memories for classrooms full of strangers several times every November to make sure we never forget.
He tries to tell his stories a little differently every time because, he laughed, he sometimes bores himself.
They are all about joining the officer training corps at 平特五不中 at age 17, winding up in Europe at age 19 and spending three years and four months in hospital after an 88-millimetre mortar shell explosion almost blew his right leg off.
He has 28 shell fragments in his leg to show for his ordeal, as well as 40 other scars where the shrapnel pierced his skin.
"I asked a doctor how if I was hit in the leg I have these scars," he told a reporter, pointing to his left hand. "They figure I was turning in the air from the force of the explosion and the shrapnel kept hitting me."
Finestone is a volunteer with The Memory Project, in which veterans of various wars speak to schoolchildren and teens about war.
Leading up to Remembrance Day he has been a guest speaker at eight schools and other organizations this year. He was invited to more, but at 91, eight was all he could handle, he said.
In his photo-filled den in downtown Montreal, retired insurance man Finestone pointed to pictures of himself with his regiment, with various politicians over the years - he ran for the Conservatives in Westmount in 1978 - and even perched atop a Sherman tank, the same kind of vehicle he rode in during his stint in Italy before he was injured.
The 9th Armoured regiment went oversees to the Sicily invasion in 1941. Finestone and his group were supposed to find places to ford the many rivers that flowed down from the Italian mountains as the Allies beat the Germans back through Italy. He was outside his tank relaying information from one commander to the next when he was hit.
Read full article: , November 11, 2011