Mask-wearing Saint Johners filled King’s Square on Thursday for the second year of a small Remembrance Day service in Saint John.
The large event at TD Station with thousands of spectators, marching bands and choirs was cancelled again this year due to the pandemic.
Ninety-six-year-old Bruce Carter served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force and found a Canadian bride during his service.
He said he was thinking about all the people he served with including the ones who didn’t make it home.
“It makes me feel good to see the people turning out in numbers despite the COVID and the weather,” said Carter.
Carter got a spontaneous round of applause from the crowd as he laid a wreath honouring Royal Canadian Legion members.
Eighty-eight-year-old Bud Stilwell served in the Korean war and laid a wreath in memory of those who served in that conflict.
Stilwell was pleased to have a lot of family support on hand.
“I am grateful for all my children here for looking after me and all the little ones that came and supported me. It was wonderful. I don’t know what I would do without them,” said Stilwell.
A painting featuring Stilwell was created during the ceremony by artist Andre Haines.
“He did a beautiful job. It was an awful subject, an old man. He made me young again,” Stilwell said with a laugh.
Stilwell’s grandson purchased the painting from Haines.
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) November 11, 2021
Haines, who moved to Saint John from Nova Scotia in May, said he loves to paint people and local events.
“I think it connects people to art and they see themselves differently and they see the places around them differently,” Haines said.
We asked how he came to include Stilwell in his painting.
“Well, I came and I started with the cenotaph and then they had chairs ready and so he was the guy sitting there. It’s just by luck and by what I see,” Haines said.
In what he called “a weird serendipity,” Haines learned he may be related to Stilwell’s extended family.