Carved oak tree salutes veterans
Bill Bettridge stands ramrod straight, eyes cast across Brampton’s Gage Park to the cenotaph at City Hall’s Ken Whillans Square. He cuts quite a figure at just over 3 metres high, a chestful of war medals glistening in a rustcoloured stain and varnish that accentuate the twisted grain in his red oak outfit. And there’s Bill Bettridge — the real one — glancing up at his finely hewn alter ego, still sturdy at 84, shiny silver and golden medals catching the sun more than 61 years after he stormed Juno Beach in Normandy in the first wave of attacks on D- Day.
He’ll be at the park again this morning when Mayor Susan Fennell officially unveils the statue carved from a 150- yearold tree to honour Brampton’s war veterans and those who gave their lives overseas in defence of freedom.
“ I’m so proud to represent all the ones who went, the ones who came back and the ones who are still over there, the ones who didn’t come home,” he said, tugging the brim of a well- worn green beret that bears the badge of the Queen’s Own Rifles.
“ I’m just getting a lot of attention because there aren’t very many of us left to talk about it.”
Fennell championed the idea of the statue only three weeks ago after a resident suggested putting the dead tree to good use instead of just chopping it down. A week later, Orangeville artist Jim Menken began work. “Over a million Canadians have been to war and we’ve lost thousands of people who never came home,” Fennell said.
“ Here we are in the Year of the Veteran and that red oak tree has stood in Gage Park through all the challenges of time and stood its ground. It reminds me of how all these soldiers stood their ground, in all sorts of weather in all sorts of challenges.” The towering carving, at the foot of stairs leading to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 15, reminds Bettridge of all the comrades he left overseas.
“ There are still so many guys still over there under the ground,” he said.
“ So often I wish they were all back here with me now.”