[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Alex Blair

Just an up Date...
This summer my wife and I stopped in to see father Mike and he had just finished celebrating his 105th Birthday..He is alive and well but slowed down considerabley ,..
We got there before lunch and he was snoozing in his chair..fully dressed in his civilian padre gear..
I held his hand and talked to him for a while and he acknowleged me and dozed off again..
I was touching a living part of Canadian military history...
I didn't want to let go but we were on our way to Chicago..I took some pictures but they are personal family only pictures and I won't post them on the internet.
I also have a copy of his war diary..and was amazed to find that he was supposed to be on the Dieppe raid with the Essex Scottish ,but was called away ,with all the rest of the padres from the various regiments to a meeting by the head padre that night the regiments left for Dieppe ..The raid was so secret that they were not even notified of the troop leaving and they left with out him..
As a result he was the only officer from the Essex Regiment that was not killed ,wounded or captured the next day and so survived the raid..
It bothered him the rest of his life and probably still bothers him today..
His diary covers '39-'46....Facinating..

Well Captain Mike Dalton is still alive and 108 years old...Amazing ..
Here is a piece from the Windsor Star..
We are certainly proud of Uncle Mike and many blessings to him and all the other veterans,old and new that fight and fought for our freedom..
Lest we forget...

An 'easy' promise that was hard to keep
Marty Gervais, Windsor Star
Published: Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Eight years ago, I promised an old priest that if he reached the age of 100, I'd write about his birthday every year till he died.

It was an easy promise to make since the odds were clearly stacked in my favour.

I was wrong.

This guy keeps living and I am reminded everywhere I go that I broke that promise in 2008. I didn't write about him. I let it slip.

I'm talking about the spirited Rev. Mike Dalton. He will be 108 in May. I'm writing about him now because, who knows, I may not live that long. Not that I have any reason to think that, of course.

The guy is slowing down. From recent correspondence from friends, he has a hard time eating or talking. But at Christmas he sent out holiday wishes to the troops overseas.

I miss this old soldier's bizarre letters. I don't know of anyone in this country who could have faith in the post office like this old priest, who would scribble my name on the front of an envelope and include only the name of the city. Somehow it made it to me. No street address. Simply: Marty Gervais, Windsor, Ont. On occasion, these letters would arrive with my picture reproduced from this column.

And what did he send me? Clippings cut out of newspapers or magazines. Bits of his memoir, jokes, inspirational quotes, and always with a "God bless you!"

Why would he care? Why would he send these to me? I soon learned I wasn't the sole recipient of these letters. He dispatched these to people all over the world. He'd spend his days with a pair of scissors and a stack of envelopes and sit there in a nursing home near Tillsonburg and put in a good day's work letting the world know he cared.

I'd sit at my desk and wonder about this legendary Second World War padre, who was there on D-Day riding at the fringes of battles.

I guess that's the problem of age. After a while people forget what you accomplished. Friends and family die and people forget or aren't aware. I bet you there's not a kid in elementary school, high school, or for that matter at any university in Southwestern Ontario, who knows this priest was a hero.

To visitors who might stumble into Rev. Dalton's nursing home room by mistake, he's just an old man with a twinkle in his eye. They might wonder about the Second World War uniform. They might think he's hanging on to some precious memory and might be pining for a beer with his buddies at the legion.

But what they don't know here is a man who sat in his jeep in wartorn France and listened patiently to the laboured, disturbed confessions of terrified soldiers in the heat of battle. Here is a man who walked down a dangerous road with these men on the way to a battle to help ease the woes, lift the spirits and assure them of God's grace. Here was a man who trudged through mud-soaked fields at dusk to bring communion to his fellow soldiers.

In the war files at this newspaper, there are photos of Rev. Dalton saying mass on the hood of his jeep. He told me once he could be so lost in the service itself that when he turned around to face the hundreds of gathered soldiers, there'd be no one there.

"Suddenly I was all alone," he said. "The soldiers had all jumped for cover and shrapnel was flying everywhere."

And for Rev. Dalton's troubles, he received the Military Cross for bravery.

Somehow that's not enough, is it? People forget. I, for one, forgot his birthday.

martygervais@gmail.com


© The Windsor Star 2009

MLU Link on Fr Mike..

http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...806#post107806