A Visit to Reg.#22316, John MacDonald. Ottawa, ON

Look who's gettin' around town

Reg.#22316, John MacDonald

Not so long ago, I was invited to tag along to visit an ole' friend, retired Reg.#22316, John MacDonald who is presently living in a Long Term Care Home in Orleans, Ontario due to his restricted ability to walk.

 

John is very fortunate because he has a couple of close troopmates living in the Ottawa area; Reg.#22329, Herman Beaulac and Reg.#22322, Ernie Welter.

 

Every few weeks or so, Beaulac and Welter slip around the 'Home' and take John captive -- out for lunch and a refreshment or two.  John has the youthful nursing staff in stitches especially by the graceful way that he teases them ... he ties to convince them that he's single and in need of a date on Friday night's.

One can easily tell that John is admired and loved by the nurses -- although they make him do his share of 'pushing and pulling' so that his strength remains at a reasonable level.

 

Lunch in downtown Orleans was absolutely delightful and memorable. Helping John into the restaurant and moving him into place for lunch was no trouble as new restruarants have adapted to the wheelchair. The food was equally delicious and John was hungry.

 

John has not lost one ounce of his humour. He made sure that he capatilized on the conversation especially about his days during training at 'N' Division in '62 as well as his stints in FSS, first, at the Canadian Police College where he and I first met during the mid 1970's. Later, John also worked in FSS at 'HQ'.

 

After returning to the Home, I had the ocassion to play a few standards on the old grand 88's for John. You can tell how he loves music. For a moment, I thought he would dance! Later, I learned that John is an accomplished harmonica (harp) player so the next time that we're together we'll play a romantice set on our harps for John's nurses!

 

Oh, it's great to be Irish or French or Scottish or English or German and Canadian too!

 

Photos by Reg.#23685, Healy, J. J.

Suspects: on the left, Herman Beaulac, center John MacDonald and right Ernie Welter.

 

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