NIAGARA REEBOK in Her Dream, Meyer Says on the Concept Came to Meyer
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NIAGARATHE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER OF NIAGARA NEW COLLEGE S FREE November 7, 2008 Vol 39 • Issue 4 FACE OF VALOUR By MALLORY BRESOLIN Staff Writer I pick up the telephone and there is a duck on the other end. “Quack, quack, quack.” I begin to chuckle. “Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.” I laugh hysterically. “Stop, Grandpa!” I plead. It happens every time. My mom passes me the telephone and my grandpa starts to quack. “It’s Grandpa Quack Quack,” I tell my mom. It is one of the best of memories I have of my grandpa. He died when I was four. I didn’t understand how great he was until many years later. Albert Victor George Hulme was born Jan. 16, 1920, in Edinburgh, Scotland. When he was three, his family moved to Thorold. He was an avid hunter, fi sherman and member of the local gun club. He was also an army man. On Jan. 26, 1941, he joined his father in the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. Not long after, he was sent to serve in Newfoundland. The 21-year-old never fought in a war but was forced to fi ght a battle of his own. Dec. 12, 1942, is a bitter cold evening in wartime St. John’s. More than 350 civilians and ser- vicemen cram into the auditorium of the Knights of Columbus Hostel to watch a performance by the Uncle Tim’s Barn Dance Band. In addition to the auditorium, packed Cpl. Albert Hulme recovers in Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto after suff ering severe burns in the Knights of Columbus Hostel Fire in St. John’s, N.L. to capacity, many servicemen are on Dec. 12, 1946. resting upstairs. It is just before 11 Submitted photo p.m. Moonlit Trail. He realizes the lady who ac- buildings, but my grandpa is still shape than he is. One of the men upstairs acci- Over the noise of the entertain- companied him to the hostel is still inside. Melted tar drips from the ceiling dentally opens a closet door while ment, someone shouts, “Fire!” inside. He runs back inside. The He jumps from the second fl oor onto his head. He tries to use his looking for a bathroom. He is met People hurtle through doors and ceiling collapses. into the courtyard and breaks his hands as a shield. by a wall of fi re. smash through windows. Some Only minutes after the fi re ankles. When he is rescued, he is found The building erupts in fl ame leap from the upper storey and into begins, the police determine the He is forced to crawl through in a pool of hot tar. between Biddy O’Toole belting the frigid St. John’s winter. My hostel is past the point of saving. the burning building, trying to My grandpa is burnt badly and is out My Bonnie Blue Boy, and grandpa makes it out safely, at least All efforts turn to keeping the reach an exit, while also assist- listed as “dangerously injured.” Teddy Adams, with his serenade of the fi rst time. fi re from spreading to surrounding ing someone else who is in worse Continued on Page 2 NEVER A COVER WITH NIAGARA ID. Wednesdays Wednesdays Not Sponsored by Niagara College or SAC www.mooseandgoose.comNiagara’s Biggest 54 FRONT ST., THOROLD, 905.227.6969 email: [email protected] Niagara’sStudent BiggestPub63264902 Night Student Pub Night Page 2 NIAGARA NEWS Nov. 7, 2008 on campus NIAGARA NEWS Wartime hero made at home Niagara College student’s memories don’t fade Comtiued from page 1 They meet again after he was The burns are severe. He sleeps released from the hospital, at the 16 in a tent to prevent the blankets Leonard Hotel in St. Catharines, from rubbing against the fragile, where she works as a switchboard fresh burns. operator. 27 He can barely be identifi ed be- Even though he is badly scarred, cause he is bandaged from head to she sees past it, just as the rest of toe. He requires 87 minor and 11 his friends and family do. major skin grafts. They marry and have four children. His right pinkie fi nger is burned Everyone who knows him doesn’t 26 so badly that doctors remove it notice his appearance, but he is al- down to his wrist. ways self-conscious about it. He stays in the hospital for a year He has terrible scars. His nose INDEX and a half. and ears are completely recon- ......................On Campus When he returns home, his structed. Some of his fi ngers are 2 younger brother Fred bathes and fused or missing and he is bald. ...........Editorial & Opinion shaves him. Fred also re-wraps his Strangers fi nd it odd, so they stare. 4 hands to let his trigger fi nger and Physically and mentally, he 6 .....................On Campus thumb out of the bandages so he never fully recovers. can continue to hunt. He lives much of his life in pain 18 ...................Off Campus My grandpa travels from Thorold and has terrible nightmares about to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto the fi re until he dies. 23 ........................... Sports for additional therapy. In the 1950s, he is still being The areas where he had skin grafts treated as an outpatient at Sunny- 28 ................Entertainment have signifi cant nerve damage. brook Hospital in Toronto. Even though many years pass, The fi rst time he sees his son 32 .........................Lifestyle and he is still being treated in the walk is in the hospital hallway dur- hospital, he begins work at Exolon ing one of his stays. and the Ontario Paper Company. On Sept. 21, 1970, my grandma He also begins dating my grand- dies, leaving my grandpa to raise the Corp. Albert Hulme (Ret.) holds his granddaughter, Mallory. ma, Anne Hamilton. children and maintain a household on Submitted photo He met her several years before. his own, while continuing to struggle On July 24, 1992, my mom anymore, but I feel sad. 28 He is 15 and she is fi ve, and he with the effects of the fi re. wakes me up and sits me on her lap I glance up from my mom’s works for the Red and White gro- Albert Hulme was an army in the kitchen. She tells me that my shoulder and see my four-year-old cery store. He delivered groceries man. He was also a family man, a grandpa had died the night before refl ection in the big shiny black Niagara News is a practical lab for Journalism-Print pro- on his bike to her parents’ house friendly man, an honourable man, and that I won’t see him again. I microwave on the kitchen counter. gram students at Niagara College. Opinions expressed many times. and my grandpa. don’t know why I can’t see him I don’t understand, so I cry. in editorials and columns are not those of Niagara Col- lege management or administration. Columns, identi- fied as such, reflect only the writer’s opinion. Remembering Readers are welcome to respond to columnists by e-mail at [email protected] a grandfather Advertising rules: The advertiser agrees that the pub- lisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for WWII survivor lives the space actually occupied by the portion of the adver- tisement in which the error occurred. All advertisers are on in memory We Remember asked to check their advertisements after first insertion. Errors, which do not lessen the value of the advertise- By HAYLEY KENNEDY ment, are not eligible for corrections by a make-good Staff Writer Every year at this time, we remember those men and women advertisement. Niagara News reserves the right to edit, revise, classify or reject any advertisement. I barely remember the two- who fought for freedom and democracy everywhere. hour drive to the hospital on that warm summer day. I felt desper- On Remembrance Day, our thoughts are also with ate as I looked out the car win- the men and women who are still fighting for dow, wanting to see some form freedom and democracy around the world. of hope looking back at me. Corrections Anything there was being We remember the reasons why we fought in the past and why blocked by the funeral proces- There were a number of editorial today it is so important we do not take our freedom for granted. sions and sad faces I saw. I knew errors in the last edition of Niagara deep in my broken heart that it We enjoy our Canadian values and institutions, our freedom to News (Volume 39, Issue 3). was almost time to say goodbye. On Page 3, the former co-creator participate in cultural and political events, and our right to live As the hospital doors slowly and co-host of This Week in Geek is opened on my arrival, I felt an under a government of our choice because of the Canadians named Steve “Snowball” Saylor. overwhelming sadness, a feel- who went off to war in distant lands in the belief that the values On Page 7, the cutline (caption) ing I had never felt so strongly of a photograph wrongly identifi ed and beliefs enjoyed by Canadians were being threatened. before. the new MP in the Welland riding. Everything inside of me want- By remembering their service and their sacrifice, we recognize The new MP is NDP candidate ed to scream, tear apart anything Malcolm Allen. the tradition of freedom these men and women fought to in sight and completely lose On Page 10, the caption of the preserve.