LangleyAdvance Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
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Lest We Forget Audited circulation: 40,026 – 32 pages
Aldergrove
Tradition honoured Her father’s passing made this year’s services all the more poignant.
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ful to write about them. She said combat experiences are sure to change a person. “I wonder what kind of life we would have had if he hadn’t gone through this,” Maas commented, adding that the same question by Heather Colpitts must be asked of the Canadians hcolpitts@langleyadvance.com sent to more recent conflicts such Susan Maas would have as Afghanistan or Bosnia. had good reason to skip Many of her father’s recolRemembrance Day services in lections are posted to websites Aldergrove this year. related to his 102 Squadron. Attending is a longtime family In typical British understatetradition for her and her loved ment, Edward Cooke, a gunner ones but her father, Edward at the time, described a bombCooke, a Second World War veting run over Europe that left the eran, died Nov. 10 at 92. plane damaged from anti-aircraft A key facet of fire and hobbling Remembrance Day back to England: is the history in “Allan [the pilot] families like Maas’ called me to look and ensuring the around for a place stories are told so to put down as we that the sacrifice is were running on not forgotten and fumes. to set an example Looking around of courage for I saw what younger generaappeared to be a tions. long straight road Skipping the and directed Allan Heather Colpitts/Langley Advance service wasn’t an to it, he told us to option so she and Parents explained the tradition of get into crash posfamily members itions as he was placing poppies on the cenotaph joined the huge going to do a belly after the Nov. 11 service. crowds at the landing. After the Aldergrove Legion. dust had settled after a perfect “It’s always been part of our belly landing we got out of the history,” Maas said. kite only to find that instead of a She was thrilled to see so many road we had landed on a dyke or people again this year at the earthworks about thirty feet wide Aldergrove service. and ten feet above ground level. “I think it’s wonderful that the “Grabbing our thermos’s we kids are coming out,” she said. slid down the bank and sat to Her mother was also in the mil- enjoy a cup of coffee, George had itary in the Second World War. a bright idea and operated the Maas said her father never truly dinghy release, got the Navy Rum opened up about his wartime and we laced our coffee with experiences but did find it helpthat.”
Heather Colpitts/Langley Advance
(Above) Susan Maas welled up when speaking about her father, who died Nov. 10. The family brought a Second World War-era photo of Edward Cooke receiving his wings from First World War flying ace Billy Bishop.
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Heather Colpitts/Langley Advance
Attendance continues to grow at the Aldergrove Rememebrance Day services where Legion Branch 265 works with community groups to host the ceremony to honour veterans.