‘Everywhere she went, she made friends’
Army Reserves corporal, 24, who died while on vacation, was loyal, ambitious and fun
Compared with her fellow soldiers, Cpl. Adeline Hartono was short, but she was tough.
One of the hurdles she needed to pass in order to join the infantry in Canada’s Reserve Force was the Battle Fitness Test. Hartono had to walk 13 kilometres in under two hours and 15 minutes while wearing her full army uniform and carrying 60 pounds (about 27 kg) of equipment on her back. She then had the choice of digging a trench or carrying a “wounded” colleague for 50 metres.
“She was one of the toughest people in the field,” said Cpl. Roberto Mena, who met Hartono in the army’s Basic Military Qualification course in 2008.
One of the few women in the 48th Highlanders of Canada, her drive and ambition made up for her height, and her personality stole people’s hearts, Mena said.
“She was a positive ball of energy,” her friend Sarah Poonawalla said. “She could lift your spirits no matter what.” Mena called it “a positive aura.” Hartono died on the afternoon of Feb. 25 while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. She was on an ATV, stopped on the road at a designated crossing, when she was hit by a car. She was 24.
At her funeral on March 7, close to 100 soldiers in uniform were in attendance to pay their respects. Within the Canadian Forces, “there was nothing but admiration and respect and love for her,” Mena said. “Everywhere she went, she made friends.”
In the close circle of about 10 friends she developed at the girlsonly St. Joseph’s Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School in Willowdale, Hartono was known as the bubbly one, Poonawalla said.
She always smiled and had an infectious laughter.
Adeline Hartono was born in Jakar- ta, Indonesia, in 1991, just a year after her brother, Brian. Although they lived a privileged life, her parents moved the family to Canada in 2000, to give Brian and Adeline the chance at a better education.
The Hartonos first lived in Thornhill, then settled in North York.
Hartono had an early interest in law enforcement and the military. In Grade 10, she joined the air cadets. In Grade11, she did a co-op placement at the Toronto Police Service. And in Grade 12, she joined the Reserves.
Hartono was proud of being Canadian and wanted to represent this country, hence her love of the army, her friend Ann Rita Siddique said.
Throughout her university years in Waterloo, Hartono stayed heavily involved with the 48th Highlanders, heading back to Toronto once or twice a month for training. Nothing would stop her from participating, Poonawalla said. For additional training in the summer, Hartono went on trips to Meaford, Ont., sometimes for more than a month.
There was one place in which Hartono couldn’t smile or laugh: Ottawa, where she spent the summer of 2014, as a ceremonial guard on Parliament Hill, at Rideau Hall and at the National War Memorial.
She loved that job, Mena said, which partly involved standing immobile and expressionless for onehour shifts in the summer’s heat while wearing a thick wool uniform and a bearskin headdress.
Hartono was known for always putting in 100-per-cent effort within the army and in her personal life. “She wanted to better herself all the time,” Brian said of his strong-willed sister. When she had something in mind, she would do it no matter what.
For example, she paid off her student loans within six months of graduating from the University of Waterloo with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.
Siddique said she will miss sharing milestones with Hartono. This year was the year Hartono and her high school friends would be turning 25. Hartono’s turn was coming up on July 19.
Ade, as she was known to her close friends, was always there for Sid- dique. She helped her move to Whitby last year, and was to be one of the bridesmaids in Siddique’s wedding in June.
Along with loyalty to her friends, Hartono was very loyal to the 48th Highlanders. Even while working on contract full-time with another unit for the past year, she still participated in regular training sessions with her original unit.
Hartono’s parents and brother were notified of her death when they received an 11 p.m. knock on their door from two representatives of the Canadian Forces.
Two other soldiers, members of the 48th Highlanders, later went to the Dominican Republic to deal with the local authorities, arrange for Hartono’s return to Canada and bring back her belongings. For the close-knit 48th Highlanders, it was as though their sister had died, Mena said.
Hartono leaves behind her parents, brother and an extended family in Indonesia that she hadn’t seen since moving to Canada.
She was planning to visit them with her parents this fall.