Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 6040 FOCUS - NOVEMBER 2016 40 FOCUS - SEPTEMBER 2016 40 FOCUS - NOVEMBER 2016 “I like to forget the war…. and just enjoy life.” VETERAN LLOYD WAKEFORD Wood carving is this veteran’s way to relax! loyd Wakeford, a West Shore Village resident says, “War is hell. It’s no picnic.” ‘A greeting card from Hitler’ cut short Lloyd’s stint in the army during the 2nd World War. He was in London England during the bombings. Lloyd was buried alive and suffered numerous injuries, including many broken bones. After a long hospital stay, he returned to his hometown of Port Perry. In 1923, Lloyd was born in a little white house in Port Perry. At the age of 18, he attempted to join the Navy. This veteran, who never lost his great sense of humour, com- mented that there were too many sailors and not enough boats. So he enlisted in the Army. “I was down on the east coast ready to go overseas when I got a letter, calling me for the Navy,” Lloyd recalls. But by then, he had witnessed the sea sickness suffered by the men on ships on the wild waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, so he decided to stick with the army. He served for three and a half years. “It’s a small world,” Lloyd noted. The Anglican minis- ter who came to visit him in the hospital was his former scout leader from Port Perry. Rev. Jack mistakenly called Lloyd ‘Clifford,’ which was his brother’s name. Clifford and his buddy hitchhiked to Montreal to sign up. While Clifford survived the war, his friend was not so lucky. He was cut in two by machine gun fire while escorting German prisoners. Yes, Lloyd suffered for years from nightmares caused by the horrific things he saw and experienced in the war. Now he says, most of his dreams are sweet memories of his late wife Annie, who passed away in 2011. Lloyd fondly remembers his buddy George Nott’s little sister Annie and her girlfriend Sheila, dancing the jitterbug in the living room, prior to his enlistment. Lloyd remembers giving Sheila a nickel and telling her to phone him when she turned 16! After Lloyd returned home, he went to a store in Port Perry with George, when a pretty girl said hello to him. Lloyd said to George, “Who’s that?” George said, “That’s my sister Annie! She wrote to you during the war!” She regularly wrote to him while he was serving, shar- ing details about everything that was happening back home in Port Perry. “I think I wrote back once,” Lloyd recalls. Annie Nott turned out to be the love of his life. Married at Port Perry United Church, they had three children, two daughters and a son. Annie worked for Bell Canada and Lloyd recalls that the office building was “on the main street of downtown Port Perry just east of Luke’s store.”