Eight Ottawans honoured for bravery at Rideau Hall

By Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen - February 24, 2012

Gov. Gen. David Johnston presents a Medal of Bravery to Colleen Taylor at Rideau Hall, Feb. 24, 2012.
Photograph by: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen

Colleen Taylor wasn’t dressed for a water rescue attempt, but that didn’t stop her from saving her neighbour after the woman fell into the icy waters of Jiulia Lake, near Carp.

“I remembering walking out onto the ice cautiously because I had these high-heeled boots on and my leather jacket. I wasn’t wearing any rescue equipment,” said Taylor, 43, an account manager at Champlain LHIN, about the Nov. 28, 2008 incident.

Taylor and her selfless act were recognized at a ceremony Friday morning at Rideau Hall. Gov. Gen. David Johnston presented three Stars of Courage and 43 Medals of Bravery at the ceremony, which honoured eight Ottawans and 38 others from across the country. The Decorations for Bravery were created in 1972 to recognize people who risked their lives to save or protect the lives of others.

Taylor said she also credits her daughter Emma in the rescue attempt of her former neighbour. It was Emma who noticed one of the dogs was in the lake and the neighbour was attempting a rescue. Moments later, the woman fell into the water and Taylor grabbed a dog leash in an effort to rescue her.

“I extended the leash as far as it went, lay down on the ice and tossed it to her. I instructed her to wrap it around her hand and I just dragged her until about six feet from the edge of the ice and then pulled her with my hands,” she said.

“At the time you just do things, it’s very practical and I’m almost embarrassed about getting this award because it doesn’t seem like a big deal. It doesn’t seem like what anybody else wouldn’t do,” she said.

Peter Nesbeth and Lindsy Richardson were OC Transpo Special Constables who didn’t hesitate to rescue a man from a vehicle only moments before it exploded into flames. On Sept. 25, 2008, the elderly man had mistakenly driven his car onto the transitway and afterwards crashed it into a tree near the Billings Bridge transit stop. The constables arrived at the accident scene to find an unconscious man trapped in his car. They pulled him to safety just before the flames erupted.

“I opened up the driver’s side door, the man was inside but he was not responding. I pulled off his seatbelt and basically dragged him out of the car,” said Richardson, 35, now an Ottawa Police constable.

“It was like pulling a heavy rag doll out of the vehicle, there are no leverages or anything,” he said.

Nesbeth said they had followed the errant driver from the east end transitway when he was spotted going the wrong way.

“When I got there the wheels of the car were spinning very fast and there was smoke everywhere. I knew something was wrong,” said Nesbeth, 48.

“I got to the car and there was a lot of smoke, I thought he would pass out from all the smoke. I started pounding on the passenger’s window with my baton, but it broke. So I came around to the driver’s side door and we began to pull him out, but his foot was caught between the gas pedal and the brake. I had to take his shoe off,” he said.

As they began to pull the unconscious man out of the smoky vehicle, an explosion erupted, he said.

“We kind of just dropped him, and we just kind of freaked out, it was frightening. The car then began to go up in flames, so we grabbed him again,” said Nesbeth, adding that the fire department and ambulance arrived shortly afterwards

The story behind bravery awards for three Ottawa police constables is also a gripping one. Const. Karen Mary Desaulniers, Const. Allen George Percival and Const. Avery Curt Flanagan were heading back to headquarters on Oct. 12, 2007 when they heard a call for a van submerged in the Rideau Canal.

It was later discovered that the 50-year-old driver had suffered a heart attack, veered off Colonel By Drive, smashed through a guard rail and plunged into the canal. He was pronounced dead three hours later in hospital.

Desaulniers was the first to jump into the waters. Flanagan and Percival pulled the driver from the van, then all three remained in the frigid water, trying to determine if there was another passenger. “Training mode kicks in and you just kind of go with it,” said Flanagan in a recent interview. “I never really had time to think. You just react.”

Other Ottawa recipients who received Medals of Bravery include Paul George Akehurst and Sgt. Lorraine Fequet.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Eight+Ottawans+honoured+bravery+Rideau+Hall/6206837/story.html#ixzz1nSlvcm5W

Governor General Medal of Bravery

Colleen Taylor, M.B.
Ottawa, Ontario
Medal of Bravery

On November 28, 2008, Colleen Taylor risked her life to rescue a woman from a possible drowning, in Jiulia Lake, in Carp, Ontario. The woman had been walking her dog when it ran out to chase a goose and fell into the freezing water, several metres from shore. The woman tried to rescue her dog, but she, too, broke through the ice. Ms. Taylor was driving by when she saw the woman struggling to get out of the water. Moving carefully across the thin ice until she was only a few metres from the victim, Ms. Taylor threw one end of a dog leash to the woman, who grabbed on tightly. Ms. Taylor got down on her stomach and, with great determination, pulled the victim out and brought her to shore.

Natural Law and Disorder

In the dog owner community, there are two separate yet equally important groups. The people who love dogs and take them into their homes, and their dogs who make life interesting. These are their stories.

(da dum) [sound effect] *

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The day dawned brisk and cold. Half of the lake had been frozen over for a couple of weeks, but the chilly overnight air had caused a skim of ice to form on the entire lake. That morning we had walked around the lake because we had seen a deer sitting in the water at the opposite shoreline with a couple of wolves sitting on the beach watching it. When we got near the deer we realized that it had broken its right front leg when it fell through the ice. The wolves would have made short work of it, unfortunately.

After we got back from a neighbour's granddaughter's christening, Freda decided to take the dogs out for a walk.

Taz's story

It was a chilly day and it was fun running and playing with Tawny and Freda. Then Max came out and we had a lot of fun playing. Then Emma took me up to the house and Mark was upset.

Tawny's story

It was a nice day, a bit chilly, but just exactly like the way I like it. I was playing with my mummy and then there were all these big birds, flapping their wings and it was all exciting, and like, it was so fun, so I started to chase them and it was so fun, I was running and running and it was so fun and and then all of a sudden I was swimming and it was cold and it made me frightened. But mummy came to help me get out of the water, but she went swimming too although she helped me get out of the water after a few tries but she didn't get out of the water. I was scared and mummy was scared too and I went up to lick her face to help mummy but she yelled at me to get away. I didn't understand why she didn't want me to kiss her.

Emma's story

I was visiting my friends next door to Freda's and Mark's and I looked out the window and saw Freda with Tawny and Taz. So I went out with Max because my mom was going to come to pick me up very soon. I was talking with Freda and then Tawny took off to chase some Canada Geese on the other side of the lake. Tawny broke through the ice and was swimming and frightened. Freda went to help her and asked me to go up and get Mark. I ran up the hill to the house and when Mark answered the door, he said "Where is Freda?" and we looked out and could only see her head sticking out of the water.

Mark's story

We came back from Lisa's baby's christening and Freda wanted to take the dogs out by herself. A little while later, the doorbell is ringing and there's knocking on the door and it's Emma. I open the door and Emma says Tawny has fallen through the ice and Freda needs help to get her out. I said "Where is she?" and we looked but all we could see was Freda's head sticking out of the water. I grabbed a coat and some shoes and started to get a step ladder to put in the car trunk to go down to the lake. I was almost ready to go when I heard a commotion at the front door and I looked out to see Steve's new truck on the front lawn and Colleen helping a very very cold Freda into the house. Freda was dripping wet, so I ran and grabbed some towels while Freda stripped off her ice cold coat and clothes. I helped Freda into the bath tub to warm up and cleaned up the puddles in the foyer. I have no idea what happened with the dogs but I think Emma must have put them in the back yard or brought them in or something.

Colleen's story

Steve had just got his new F-150 King Ranch truck and I was driving this pretty truck down to pick up Emma who was visiting Freda and Mark's neighbour at Jiulia Lake. As I was approaching their house, I saw Freda in the middle of the lake and - boom - I saw her fall through the ice as I was watching. I immediately drove down to the edge of the shore and ran out to see what I could do. Freda said the ice was thick there but not to come too close and throw the end of the dog leash to her. It was an extendable leash so I extended it out and threw it to Freda. She caught it after a few tries but I couldn't pull her out because her shoulders were at the water level. Eventually Freda managed to get part of her over the edge of the ice and I pulled her towards the shore. Steve Kayser, the neighbour, had run down to the lake at this time and picked Freda up and put her in the truck. I jumped in the truck and drove up to Freda's house, right over the front lawn and parked in front of the front door.

Freda's story

I took the dogs out after the christening for a play. Dear Emma was visiting the neighbour girls and saw me and the dogs and came out to say hi. A few minutes later, Tawny took off across the lake to chase some Canada Geese and fell through the ice. I could see she was scared and was going to need help to get out, so I asked Emma to go and get Mark and I started to go out to try to rescue Tawny. I was on my hands and knees to distribute my weight on the ice and I was doing well but then the ice broke and I fell into the water. That was cold. That was very cold. That was very very cold. That was very very very very very cold!!!! Then Colleen appeared with her stiletto boots but there were no ropes or sticks or anything. Then I saw the leash laying on the ice where I dropped it when I went onto my hands and knees. I told Colleen to extend it out and and throw it to me which she did. Eventually I was able to catch it but I couldn't get out of the water, even though Colleen was pulling because my shoulders were at the water level. Somehow I got partly out of the water and Colleen started pulling me across the ice towards the shore. I lost my mitten and I was so very cold. Steve Kayser picked me up and carried me to the front seat of Steve's new truck and plopped me in there, even though I was soaking wet. Colleen drove me up to the house and on the front lawn and helped me up into the house.

Those were the events of November 23, 2008 - three years ago. This is the photo of the lake on November 26, a few days later. You can read my original (very short) blog posting here.

Freda lost a mitten when she fell in, and it marks the place where she fell in -- this photo shows that location. You can also see the trail on the ice where Colleen dragged Freda to the shore.


These are the stories but these were all written by me (Mark). I do have notes that I made at the time, but I didn't have them with me as I wrote these stories, so there may be minor errors in detail.

Needless to say, I am forever grateful to Colleen and Emma for their part that day in pulling Freda out of the lake. If they hadn't been there, I dread to think what might have happened.

In 2009, I was reading some of the stories of the new winners of the Governor General's awards for Bravery. As I read those stories, I thought that I should look into nominating Colleen for her selfless actions that saved Freda's life. I submitted a nomination and am very glad to say that Colleen was informed that she will be the recipient of a Governor General Award for Bravery.

You can read about the October 2011 awards here.

* Apologies to Dick Wolf, the creator of Law & Order, for taking creative license with the introductory commentary to his show.

RIP little squirrel

We have a dead squirrel in the back yard. Not sure when it happened...... I just saw it when I let the dogs out and they both ran over to this furry lump on the grass.

I was afraid it was the bunny that we have seen around here, but I think it is the squirrel with the shortened tail. :((

From photo taken on May 8th:


Click here if you want to see the dead squirrel.

Baby Blandings Turtle

I was picking up the dog toys off the lawn in preparation for mowing it, and I saw this tiny baby turtle - okay, it's really called a hatchling. This is a baby Blandings Turtle - that's my left thumb in the photo for scale, so you can see just how tiny it really is! I have posted photos of an adult Blandings Turtle before - one was trapped in our yard and we also saw it on the front steps. You can see those pictures by clicking here.

Front view of the baby.

Back view - look at its tiny sharp claws! I found out afterward that you shouldn't turn them upside down. Sorry baby Blandings!

And put it down in the grass - off you go little fella!

Infant Mortality

Brown Snake. This snake is very timid and will freeze in its tracks if it senses you there - just like this one did. I didn't move for the entire time I was standing and taking photos - about 1 1/2 or two minutes.

I labeled this a Brown Snake, but it might be a Northern Red-Bellied Snake as they look very similar from above. I didn't pick the snake up to confirm its identity because both of these species of snake are so timid. The Northern Red-Bellied Snake has a red belly, of course!

The following is from the Ontario Snake Reference Guide:

Brown (or DeKay's) Snake: Brown with a beige belly, and often small black spots along the back. This small (up to 40 cm) snake is sometimes found when moving rocks or pieces of wood. Very timid, the Brown Snake does not bite or musk. Because it eats slugs and worms, this snake is a gardener's friend! They are nocturnal, and can be found even in urban areas throughout southern Ontario where patches of habitat exist.

The following juvenile creatures were victims of road mortality.

Stop reading if you don't want to read or see more - the photos are NOT gory.


Smooth Green Snake - yes, that's really what the species is called! The underside fades to a pale creamy white.

This poor snake was run over - you can see where the stones in the road punctured its body. It was obviously writhing in agony to get all twisted up like that.

The following is from the Ontario Snake Reference Guide:

Smooth Green Snake: A beautiful bright green snake to behold. The green snake does not defend itself if caught, but it is a fast mover. Ontario’s only insect-eating snakes, they love to eat grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars and also spiders. They may grow to about 50 cm in length, and are very slender.

Blandings Turtle hatchling - it is on top of a piece of 4x4, so you can see how small it is.

This turtle hatchling was hit by a vehicle and suffered fatal injuries. I will not post the photo of the hatchlings underside. :(

A Northern Red-Bellied Snake - another poor roadkill victim. I confirmed the identity by taking a photo of the underside of the snake - which I will not post here as it is a bit gory.

The following is from the Ontario Snake Reference Guide:

Northern Red-Bellied Snake: Similar to the brown snake, but even smaller, and as the name implies, it has a red (or orange) belly. The back may be plain brown or gray. Very secretive, this snake is usually only discovered when a hiding place is exposed. Slugs are its main diet, so this is also an excellent garden snake. A very timid snake, it has never been known to bite in self-defense. Red-bellies are found as far north as Lake Superior, but they do not seem to survive in urban areas like brown snakes manage to do.

There was also a very large toad that was squashed that I will not post a photo. Spread your fingers wide apart - that's about the size of the toad. So sad.

Panos in warm weather

August 13th, 2010

What a beautiful day! The hill is starting to turn green again. It was a lovely temperature, with just a hint of wind to ruffle the surface of the water.

This pano shows you the rock collection that Taz has been building - I used a blue asterisk (*) to indicate the rocks (or groups of rocks in some cases) that he brought out of the lake. The area on the right is sandy and was grown in with the weedy rushes, but Taz's playing with the stones (pouncing on them like a cat, and playing with them with his big goofy paws) has sort of cleared out some of the rushes.

The water level in the lake is quite low - about 18-20" below normal at this time of the year. This means the lake is getting warmer, which is harder for the fish to survive. That may have been what happened with this fish. For a few days, Tawny and Taz went over to an area with a bunch of reeds, so I went to investigate. The foul odour was the reason why the dogs were attracted to the area, and the fish is the reason for that odour... Poor fish.

The low water level has also shown us where a Kong sunk. I put some lines of dots to indicate the rope for the Kong so you can see it. The main body of the Kong is just to the left of the row of blue dots.

It's no wonder that Taz can swim so fast as he can make big strokes with his long legs!

Birds and more birds

June 3, 2010
Canada Geese - 3 family groupings and two adult geese not with any of the babies. The three groupings from L-R, 6 goslings with two adults, 9 goslings with two adults, and five goslings with four adults, for a total of 20 goslings and 10 adults.

June 7, 2010
Red-breasted Robin. We think this is the female of the nesting pair.

June 7, 2010
Red-breasted Robin. We think this is the male of the nesting pair. He's quite a bit plumper than the female (above).

June 7, 2010
A plethora of American Goldfinches, including one in-flight.

June 7, 2010
This poor juvenile female American Goldfinch flew into the kitchen window and broke its neck. I buried it on the side of sunny south-facing slope near some thistles (Goldfinches eat thistle seeds).

June 8, 2010
This is a Killdeer. They are always very close when I don't have the camera soo this is the best photo I have. I will see if I can do better...

June 8, 2010
I love this photo of the robin on the rocks. Very pretty.

June 8, 2010
Hmm, why is the robin in the next again when the babies have already flown the coop??

Update June 13: I found one of the baby robins, dead in front of a window. We think it probably flew into the window and broke its neck. Freda buried it on a sunny slope facing east.


June 9, 2010
I snapped this photo of this strange bird at the Goldfinch Feeder. At first I thought it might be a juvenile Goldfinch, but the tail is too short - it's almost non-existent (look at the tail of the goldfinch just above it!). I have several other photos of this unusual bird, but this is the best one.

June 10, 2010
Action shot of the Goldfinches!!

June 10, 2010
The Blue Jay (top left) and the starling (just behind the feeder at bottom right) just had a bit of a squabble about who got to feed at the sunflower seed feeder. I think they were squabbling because there weren't many sunflower seeds left, so I filled up the feeder. The birds can go through about 5 lbs of sunflower seeds a day, and probably more if I kept it filled up all the time...

June 10, 2010
A close-up of a starling.

June 11, 2010
This is an injured deer fly. It was injured when it landed on me and I was able to smack it and I guess that it can't fly anymore. If you see these flies with their patterned wings land on you, you can be sure that they will have no hesitation at taking a big bite out of you, so I'm not feeling so sorry for it now... Deer fly bites swell up a bit, and are incredibly itchy for several days, and can take 4-5 days to heal (or a lot more if you scratch the bite initially!).

June 12, 2010
A dove, sitting on the fence with its feathers all puffed out...

The saga of the wild turkey leg

Gentle Reader, you may recall an entry from February 16th titled Strange Things that showed the following photo of a wild turkey leg.

February 15, 2010

The leg was mostly buried in the snow. We were surprised by the length of the nails on the turkey's foot. I am guessing that the nails helps the turkey get good traction on ice, and also perhaps as a defensive weapon.

March 21, 2010

Sometime after all the snow had gone, we discovered that something had eaten most of the skin off the turkey leg. As you can see, there really isn't much there except for skin, bone, and sinew (tendons). And the nails that I commented on above (of course).

April 23, 2010

A few weeks ago, the neighbours' girls and friends came running out to see the dogs. They had been having a birthday party, which is why there were so many friends over. We showed them the wild turkey leg and they were morbidly fascinated by it. A few days later, we discovered that they had buried the leg and made a sort of grave marker for it. Very sweet!

A vole - a victim

This is a vole, also known as a field mouse, or a meadow mouse. According to Wikipedia, the average life span of a vole is 3-6 months. This one didn't get that old. How did this happen? Well, it was due to Taz the Hunter!

Freda was out with the dogs, and Taz came running up the hill, his mouth slightly open and his tail wagging furiously -- he was obviously very very pleased with himself. Freda saw this and recognized this as his behaviour when he had caught something. He dropped it out of his mouth and Freda saw that it was still alive at that moment. It didn't survive much longer, so who knows if it died of fright, or if it had some internal injuries when Taz picked it up.

Unfortunately, being prey is part of the lot in life for voles. They don't live long, have 5-10 young at a time, reach sexual maturity in a month, and can have 5-10 litters in a year.

So, Taz's catch and kill totals, that we know of, are:

• two baby foxes
• two baby skunks
• one baby vole

A life of quiet courage - Miep Gies

Miep Gies, the person who found and preserved Anne Frank's diary, died January 11th after complications from a fall from before Christmas - she would have been 101 in February. The following is an excerpt from a BBC news article (Anne Frank diary guardian Miep Gies dies aged 100):

Miep Gies, the last surviving member of the group who helped protect Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, has died in the Netherlands aged 100.

She and other employees of Anne Frank's father Otto supplied food to the family as they hid in a secret annex above the business premises in Amsterdam.

Anne's diary of their life in hiding, which ended in betrayal, is one of the most famous records of the Holocaust.

It was rescued by Mrs Gies, who kept it safe until after the war.

Miep Gies would have turned 101 on February 15th, 2010.

Images from BBC web site:

Miep Gies, with a copy of the now famous Anne Frank's Diary - first published in 1947 and has sold over 30 million copies in 65 languages.



Mrs Gies, front row left, seated next to Otto Frank. I think this photo is likely from around the time Anne's diary was first published. There is no date on the caption on the BBC web site, and no names for the other people.

Update: I found this same photo on the annefrank.org website, with the description that these were the four helpers who brought food and supplies, etc, to the Frank and Van Pels families in the the Secret Annex, as it was known. The seven were later joined by Fritz Pfeffer. The Anne Frank web site photo had this caption that identified them:

From the left to the right: Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Otto Frank, Victor Kugler and Bep Voskuijl.

What happened:

• Otto Frank -one of only 7,650 prisoners alive when Auschwitz was liberated by Russian soldiers on January 27, 1945, he weighed only 115 lbs .
• Edith Frank - dies at Auschwitz concentration camp Jan 6, 1945.
• Margot Frank - dies of typhus at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in late winter 1945.
• Anne Frank - dies of typhus at Bergen-Belsen, one day after her sister Margot.
• Hermann Van Pels - gassed at Auschwitz after becoming too exhausted to work, September 1944.
• Auguste Van Pels - dies somewhere in Germany or Czechoslovakia, probably between April 9 and May 8, 1945, after being shuttled around from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen to Raguhn (part of the concentration camp at Buchenwald) to Theresienstadt to -unknown-.
• Peter Van Pels - marched from Auschwitz to Mathausen concentration camp in Austria where he was forced to work in a stone quarry where he died May 5, 1945, sick and exhausted.
• Fritz Pfeffer - dies in sick bay at Neuengamme concentration camp, Dec 20, 1944.

Sea of Blue and Red

The funeral for Constable Eric Czapnik was held today. I include a few quotes from a CBC news article Slain Ottawa officer honoured at massive funeral:

An Ottawa police officer killed in the line of duty last week was honoured Thursday during a ceremonial procession and a funeral attended by thousands of police officers from across North America.
...
Police officers, civilian police members, firefighters and paramedics from Canada and the U.S., as well as local, federal and provincial politicians, city councillors and some senators packed the bleachers of the venue, which holds 8,000 people.
...
Czapnik was stabbed to death on Dec. 29 outside the civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital, where he had been sitting in his cruiser taking notes.

Czapnik, who had been with the Ottawa Police Service since 2007, is only the second Ottawa police officer to be killed while on duty in more than 25 years.

Kevin Gregson, a suspended RCMP officer from Saskatchewan, has been charged with first-degree murder.
...
Officers taking part include:

• 1,500 Ottawa police.
• 1,000 RCMP and military police.
• 50 U.S. and international police.
• 300 Quebec police.

Freda took all these photos with her cell phone, so they are not the same quality as our usual photos.

Constable Czapnik's platoon led the way.

Constable Czapnik's remains with honourary pallbearers.

Ottawa Police Service, led by the brass, and it looks like some RCMP red serge in there too.

Probably every Ottawa Police officer that wasn't working...

People from the community, his church, friends, etc.

The paramedics. One paramedic (a female) tackled the guy who assaulted Constable Czapnik, while others tried to save his life.

More police officers, this time - the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). Or maybe these are the Quebec police, US police, and Military Police people that were reported in the CBC article - not sure about that.

And behind them, the officers of the RCMP start.

And the RCMP officers come in waves...

The Ottawa Fire Department had two ladder trucks, with a huge flag hung between them.

Lucky coyote!!!

Imagine you are a coyote. Imagine you are a coyote running across a highway in Colorado, and get hit by a van going 75 mph. Now imagine spending eight hours wedged behind the bumper of that Honda, traveling 600 miles and ending up in California, and surviving with a few scrapes and scratches. I think that is the definition of LUCKY!!

You can read the full story at http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/luckycoyote.asp.

Remembrance Day 2009

Once again, I went to the Remembrance Day Memorial program at the Kanata Cenotaph. I only found out this morning that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles were going to be at the Ottawa Cenotaph, but it was too late to change my plans. There were a lot of people out again this year. It was a very nice day too, which is unusual for Remembrance Day in Ottawa.

A new thing this year was the school children who laid a poppy at the base of the 22 memorial trees.

This was the CF18 flypast, in the 'missing man' formation.

After the ceremony, this is Gordon O'Connor (our MP and former Defence Minister) and a veteran walking to the stand to take the salute from the veterans and the various armed forces, police, RCMP, cadets, etc.

This is the start of the march past. The pipe band was first.

The drummers followed the pipers.

After the drummers, came the colours. After the colours, there was a contingent of veterans - including women's veterans, then current armed forces members, police services (Ottawa Police, OPP, RCMP), cadets, etc. I didn't get any photos of them because I put down the camera and was clapping as they went by.

This is one of the memorial trees, and the poppy that was laid by one of the school children.

Here are some youtube videos:

"Canadian WWII veteran tribute"

"A Pittance of Time" Terry Kelly
On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a Shoppers Drug Mart store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store's PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the store's leadership role in adopting the Legion's "two minutes of silence" initiative. He felt that the store's contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven o'clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the "two minutes of silence" to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terry's anger towards the father for trying to engage the store's clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was later channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, "A Pittance of Time". Terry later recorded "A Pittance of Time" and included it on his full-length music CD, "The Power of the Dream".