75 years later, Hamilton woman thanks D-Day soldiers for her life
Jennifer Street says those who fought in Normandy gave everything
Though it happened a lifetime ago, Jennifer Street still remembers the blare of the air raid siren, searchlights streaking through the air at night, and Winston Churchill's voice on the radio.
As a young girl growing up in England during the Second World War, all she knew was the spectre of conflict and the possibility of German invasion.
"I didn't remember a time when that hadn't been my reality," she said.
Now, as an 82-year-old sitting in her central Hamilton home on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Street wants to express how much she and others like her appreciate the immense sacrifice of those who fought on the beaches of Normandy.
"I would just want to tell them how grateful I am, and I'd tell them I hope the life I've lived, in some small way, honoured their sacrifice," she said.
"We were just ordinary people. But what they did changed our lives."
I've had a wonderful life as a result of what they did for me.- Jennifer Street
Street grew up in the village of Ashtead, England, about 30 kilometres south of London. Her father passed away when she was young, so Street and her mother were living with her grandparents.
There were lots of soldiers around — Canadians especially, who were billeted in a manor house just down the road.
"Mother, as a single woman, got to know some of them down at the pub," Street said. It was through these soldiers, who she got to know as her "uncles," that Street first tasted maple syrup.
But in the spring of 1944, all her "uncles" up and left. As a seven-year-old she didn't really understand why, but Street still remembers how the roads were filling up with jeeps, tanks and trucks.
Storming the beach
She couldn't have known it then, but these soldiers were setting out across the English Channel for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Normandy — a massive operation that would help free Europe from the grip of fascism.
Canadian military planners had expected 1,800 casualties on D-Day, totalling the killed, wounded and captured. According to federal government records, there were 1,074 Canadian casualties during the taking of the beachhead.
D-Day was just the beginning, though. By the end of the Normandy campaign, more than 5,000 troops had been killed out of roughly 18,000 Canadian casualties.
Street says her family tried to keep as much of the war from her as they could. "But I knew we were in danger of being invaded — that the German army could come to our shores," she said.
Success on D-Day and in the days and weeks following helped turn the tide, and people knew it, she said.
"We started seeing waves of Lancasters going over. My whole school was just jubilant."
'I'd never seen so many lights'
Street's life further changed when her mother later married a Canadian soldier named George in their village, and before long, they were on a ship crossing the ocean with other war brides, heading to Canada.
The family landed in Halifax on Dec. 24, 1944, before the end of the war. It was Christmas, and for a child used to living through blackouts, the glow of the holiday lights was everything.
"I'd never seen so many lights," she said. "It lifted a spirit that I didn't even know was down."
They settled in Ottawa, but the marriage didn't last. Roughly six months in, it turned out George also had another family.
"He had somebody on both sides of the pond," Street said. Still, she refers to him as "a very nice man," who was part of a world-changing operation that meant so much to so many.
"These guys were about the age of my grandson," she said.
"It's just an astounding sacrifice they made. I've had a wonderful life as a result of what they did for me."
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With files from Murray Brewster