Kindness To Canadians Abroad

I ran across this wonderful story today while reading the Acts of Kindness section in the online version of the Toronto Star. I thought it was poignant and just loved the Vimy connection.

I had just finished a foreign study term in Switzerland and had [enough] time before my flight to Toronto from Paris to see Vimy Ridge, something I had always thought was important.

Unfortunately I missed a connection in Brussels on my way and therefore missed the shuttle to the 90th Anniversary Memorial Service when I arrived in Arras. I took a bus from Arras the next day to Vimy which was still a ways from the memorial, but I decided I would walk through the countryside regardless.

I had walked for five minutes when a little car pulled up beside me and an elderly man asked if I was Canadian. After telling him in my broken French that I was, he offered to drive me to the memorial.

He told me he picked up Canadians every time he saw them, because he was thankful for the efforts during the world wars. He even promised to pick me up afterwards.

When I returned to the visitors centre, the guides called him up and he was back within minutes. He drove me to other cemeteries and sites that I would not otherwise have been able to see and drove me to the station to catch the next train to Paris.

His kindness showed me that almost a century later the kinship forged between our countries was still strong. The gentle man, as I was told in the visitors centre, was known locally as the 'grandpere des guides' - the grandfather of the guides.

Morgan Ip, Ottawa