Quilts of Valour a warm thank you to veterans
Hand-stitched textiles presented to men and woman who served our country
“Thank you for your service,” Janet Bergeron said while draping a oneof-a-kind hand-stitched Quilt of Valour over the shoulders of Alan Brownlie at a ceremony Saturday.
“You’re welcome — I’d do it again,” the Second World War air force veteran responded.
Six veterans — four from the Second World War, one who served in the Bosnian War and one who served while the Korean War was raging — were all honoured with their own quilts. Like Brownlie, fellow honourees Ken Bickle, Larry Young, Richard Gates, Ted Karchuk and Ruth Lavoie all live at Windsor’s Royal Marquis retirement residence where the weekend ceremony took place.
“They’re a tangible symbol to acknowledge your service and to say thank you for your service to our country,” Bergeron, area representative of Quilts of Valour, said of the brightly coloured textile gifts.
This year alone, more than 100 of the quilts have been distributed in Windsor-Essex, she said. Five of the quilts presented Saturday were made by Pauline Gaudette of Windsor, who only laughed in response to someone’s question about how long it takes to make one.
During the Second World War seven decades ago, Brownlie was a tailgunner in a B-24 Liberator specially equipped to hunt down and destroy Nazi U-boats off the coastline of the Americas. His airborne missions would last up to nine hours. As the war dragged on, the Allies’ anti-submarine warfare technology became increasingly sophisticated — and deadly.
“The poor guys, they didn’t stand a chance — we put an end to them,” Brownlie said of his enemy submarine quarry. More than two-thirds of the Third Reich’s U-boat fleet never returned home.