REMEMBRANCES

      I recall sitting on the arm of the floral covered chesterfield and watching out the living room window. My daddy was soon to come home from somewhere and I was delegated to watch for him. Soon he appeared in his topcoat and hat, hurrying through our white picket fence gate and rushing up the front stairs. He did not stop to gather me up in his arms, nor run his hand over my hair, instead he rushed through the house and someone closed the door to the kitchen. That door had never been closed as long as we had lived in the house. I felt distinctly uneasy. I didn’t know it then, but my father was in the final throes of a horrific heart attack which would kill him. Later I felt very angry and went out and kicked the fence and whacked a tree with the corn broom. I didn’t know why I was angry, but I sure was. My father, Art McIlvena, went overseas in 1940, when he was 39 years old. He had been born in Lancashire, England and felt he must enlist in the war effort that was culling all the young men able to heft a rifle and defend his Mother England. He served overseas until September 1944 when he was demobilized due to poor health. Art suffered from shellshock during the Battle of Britain, which gave him heart failure. He left three little girls under 12 and a young widow to make her way and support them all.

      My aunt Leona Cowell was born in Iowa, in the heart of Amish territory. She migrated to Canada when she was in her teens, with her family who all settled in the Lethbridge, Alberta area. She was a superb business woman in her day. She met and married my father’s elder brother. I did not know either of these family members, as I was born in 1939 in Edmonton, a long ways from Lethbridge. They had no children, so there were no cousins for us to make a trip to see and consort with. At the outbreak of the war in 1939 women were neither rushing to sign up nor being actively recruited. Just one year later the colour of the war was entirely different. Women were now clamoring to be accepted to take part in any way they could. The need was now great for any and all contributions to the war effort. In November 1940 she helped organize and command a branch unit of Canadian Auxiliary Territorial Service (CATS) in Lethbridge. When the Canadian Women's Army Corps [C.W.A.C's] was formed in September 1941, sixteen of the Lethbridge C.A.T.S. Unit was in the first quota of 85 called by M.D. 13 to the colors in Alberta. Leona was one of the first officers in the C.W.A.C., and was promoted to the rank of full Major, the highest ranking woman officer in Lethbridge and the area, outranking her Sgt/Major husband, Hugh G McIlvena. This brought the family members serving to three.

      Back in Edmonton, mother’s youngest brother of three, Elwyn ‘Ray’ Springsteel was anxious to join up and do his duty, also. When he was 23 he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces - 49th Canadian Regiment, the ‘Loyal Eddies’ in 1939. He went overseas to England immediately, in WW II. He was in the same regiment as his brother-in-law, Art. His older brother, Clair Springsteel, also decided to join, when he was twenty-seven in 1939. He joined the Canadian 5th Armoured Division, 49th Regt., Edmonton (the Loyal Eddies). Both men served overseas during WW II in England, Italy, and Holland. They took part in the horrific battles between the German and Allied armies, on the east coast of Italy. Now the number of men serving from one family has grown to five. But there is one more to mention.

      Guy Springsteel, eldest of the three Springsteel men, lived in Seattle with his family. He had been a school teacher and a businessman. He gave it all up and joined the United States Merchant Navy. During WW II he was a deck officer in the merchant marine and was wounded by a Japanese Kamikaze pilot on Dec. 26, 1944. During his convalescence, on ship and in hospital, he had the idea and ability to complete a family tree, on his mother’s side of the family. He did an admirable job and when he was finished it numbered 32 foolscap pages of Drakes. I also include a cousin, Pilot Officer JAMES LE ROY SPRINGSTEELE, J/95440, 48 (R.A.F.) Sqn, Royal Canadian Air Force, who died on 23 September 1944, at Arnhem. Remembered with honour, ARNHEM OOSTERBEEK WAR CEMETERY, Holland.
All this side of the family was American and the recounting begins in 1799 and only ended in 1956 because the story was still on-going. It is grows still.

      A Tribute and Eulogy of the Drakes who were veterans of war is included. I include those men here, as they were the forebears for the men and women included herein. All were Veterans of the War Between the States, April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865: Edward Drake, II Corp, 15th Regt, 1864-65. Charles E Drake, age 16, Co K, 50th New York Engineer Corps. Silas Drake, age 21, 102nd New York Infantry, who died September 7, 1862 at the first Battle of Fredericksburg, VA. Abner Drake died of wounds in Virginia, also; and Alexander Drake, age 27 as well.

       Because I am a genealogist and have come to ‘know’ these and many other men of note throughout my family history, when I stand proudly, wearing my Canadian red poppy and listen to the words of ‘Flanders Fields’, my thoughts always go to all of the above mentioned brave men and women who served so gallantly and gave their all that Freedom and Liberty might live everywhere.
      
      And I mention the names of Lt Col Derek Joyce, currently serving in Afghanistan with the Canadian NATO troops. And one young woman who gave her ‘all’ May 17, 2006 in Afghanistan, also, Capt Nichola Goddard.

At the going down of the sun

We will Remember them

-Marilyn McIlvena Sergi, Nov 2006