My great-grandfather, Ed Emmonds, was part of the Canadian army that fought in France during World War I. He was 19 at the beginning of the war in 1914, and he interrupted his engineering studies at university to volunteer to fight. He wanted to serve his country in the war but didn't want to kill people, so he served in the medical core. He endured the trenches with the mud rats and disease. He braved the front lines, risking exposure to bullets, grenades, bonnets, and mustard gas. His goal was just to rescue as many from the battlefield as he could and bring them to the field hospital for treatment.
My second family member that fought in a World War was my grandfather, Lewis O'Leary. Lewis was a professional guitarist with a Vancouver jazz band, and he was touring Southeast Asia when World War II began. He volunteered to join the Australian Army and he was posted to New Guinea where he drove a half-armored truck.
One afternoon, he was driving down a road when a squadron of Japanese Zero swept in. He swerved to avoid the planes’ guns, but he rolled the truck and ended up with a broken shoulder. The doctor was about to amputate his arm, but he was lucky that a nurse actually happened to check his chart and saw that he was a guitarist and needed his left hand to make a living.
So they saved his arm, and when he transferred to the Australian Air Force, he qualified as a navigator and was posted to England; he flew in a Lancaster Bomber. After the war was over, Lewis returned to civilian life, but not as a guitarist, and he brought back a shoulder that was always hurt. His hearing was also permanently damaged by the plane's engines, and he always had nightmares of being shot down by anti-aircraft fire.
Though I don't really remember much of him, he's a hero to me; hearing his stories from my dad made me feel proud to have him in my family.
I think family is the most important thing to me. They support me and everything I do, whether that's school or any other things that are going on in my life. Family is the most important thing to have in your life because they're always there for you. When I was in the Junior School—I think grade four, so about six years ago now—I was having a tough time, especially with my stress and anxiety. Only my mom could be there for me because friends couldn't really help me with this kind of problem. We were too young. But this memory of my mom helping me get through that time will always stick with me. Everyone experiences stress and anxiety at different times, so I want to share my story so that others can be encouraged to share their feelings and know that someone is there for them.
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