Ted Fletcher is a survivor.
He has been exploded out of a tank and shot in the shoulder. He has suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg and nearly died crawling through a field of burning grain in Normandy, France.
Now, at 91, for all his efforts and because of his role in France's liberation from the Nazis more than 70 years ago, the Coquitlam resident has been awarded the rank of Knight in France's National Order of Legion of Honour, the country's highest honour.
Early last month, Fletcher received the medal in the mail, along with a letter from the French ambassador to Canada.
The award was given to 1,000 Canadian veterans to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the storming of Juno beach and subsequent battles. Port Moody resident Guy Black, a longtime advocate for Canadian veterans, helped Fletcher apply.
"I feel very grateful, it's an honour," Fletcher told The Tri-City News in December.
Fletcher was only 19 when he joined the army in 1943. Then living in Vancouver, it seemed like the right thing to do because other men his age were signing up. After training in Vernon, Fletcher was sent to England as part of the preparation for the assault on Normandy's beaches.
When he arrived in France, in June 1944, Fletcher was assigned to various jobs as a tank gunner, experiencing several battles in four different tanks over a six-week period.
"Every day of my life, for maybe just a short period of time, I think about it," says Fletcher of his war experiences.
Those memories are as clear today as they were 70 years ago, and Fletcher tells the story slowly.
He recalls, for example, the time he scrambled from an exploded tank and crawled through a field of grain set alight by the Germans, taking a bullet in the shoulder and shrapnel in his leg — a German prisoner of war, a medic, put some powder on his leg to help it heal. His final day of service was Aug. 14, when he was sent to a field hospital for his injuries.
Today, what Fletchers prefers to think about most are the good times with his pals from the First Hussars Canadian Army regiment, many of them who didn't survive Normandy. Fletcher wishes their families could get an award, too.
"I feel that there was a lot of people who should have got it but didn't get it — those that have passed away — because a requirement was you had to be alive," he said.
After the war, Fletcher returned to Canada, eventually settling in Coquitlam, marrying his wife, Pat, and raising a family in a house on Hillside Avenue. Today, it's his grandson, Christopher, who listens to his stories and appreciates the effort his grandfather made to liberate France.
Each year, the family attends Remembrance Day ceremonies and goes to brunch, and Fletcher's other medals are hung in a frame on the wall of his living room. Soon, the French medal will occupy a place of honour, a memento from a grateful nation that is facing struggles even today with recent terrorist attacks on French soil.
Fletcher's heart goes out to the people of France, whose fields and cities he tried to liberate with the allied forces, and the French medal is a symbol of that sacrifice and achievement.
"I feel it's a legacy to leave to my family," he says.
