D-Day touches Collingwood, through my Grandpa

That’s my Grandpa. His name is Forrest Monner. He is currently 98 years old, and lives (stubbornly) on his own, near Omemee, Ontario.

I’ve been meaning to write about him for quite a while. I commandeered a couple of his WWII photo albums when I visited him last time, something that he holds over my head whenever I speak to him 🙂

He comes to Collingwood every summer for a day or two. Usually my folks come in from Arizona, my sister and her family from China (or wherever they happen to be living at the time), and sometimes by brother and his family, who live in Thunder Bay.

This gets him together with his daughter, 3 grandchildren and 7 grandchildren. Collingwood becomes home for our annual reunion.

 

Here he is with his plane, a P-51 Mustang named the Ginny-Ellie. Ellie is what he called my Grandma, who passed away in 1996.

Grandpa fought at Normandy, but never spoke to any of us about it, until after Grandma passed away. In the 18 years since, he’s become quite open with his experiences. My nephews Noah and Spencer (who are junior Spielberg’s) did some video interviews with him last summer.

Here is an aerial shot of his plane.

Aside from invading Normandy, one of my Grandpa’s most amazing stories, is how he fought in and survived, the Battle of the Bulge.

He played a key role in that famous Battle.  When Warner Brother made the film of the battle, he was a guest of the company at its premier.

This is from the Toronto Telegraph, December 16, 1954

I plan to write about him in much more detail in the future, but with today being the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, I just wanted to put this out there for him.

I love you Grandpa