Remembrance Day brings 107-year-old veteran and great-grandson closer together
CBC
Nathan Donald and his great-grandfather Burdett Sisler might be 100 years apart in age, but they've formed a close bond, and this Remembrance Day has only brought them closer together.
"Nathan really looks up to big grandpa and definitely saw a different side of him, being able to have some one-on-one time like that and ask his own questions," Cam Donald, Nathan's father and Sisler's grandson-in-law, told CBC.
Seven-year-old Nathan interviewed Sisler, 107, about Remembrance Day, his service in the Second World War and what life was like a century ago.
Sisler, who lives in Fort Erie, Ont., is one of Canada's oldest surviving war veterans.
Nathan and his family uploaded the roughly five-minute video onto his YouTube channel, where he's interviewed other people, including the former mayor of St. Catharines, Ont.
"This isn't any ordinary video because I'm interviewing my great-grandpa who is 107 and fought in World War II," Nathan says to start the video.
"Grandpa, why is Remembrance Day so important?"
"You should remember the fellas that went to war. You should give thanks to those who gave their lives so you could have a good time here in Canada," Sisler responds.
Sisler was born in Akron, Ohio, on April 14, 1915, in the middle of the First World War.
His family moved to the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke at age three, the same year the Spanish flu hit.
In the video, Nathan asks Sisler what life was like when he was seven and what kind of games he played growing up.
"At seven years old, it was 1922, the war had been finished for four years, but it was tough sledding in a sense that prices of stuff had gone up according to the times," Sisler said.
"But we managed somehow or other. There was always lots of food and the food was inexpensive. You could get a loaf of bread for a couple of cents," he said, adding that kids his age played games like tag.
Sisler joined the Royal Canadian Armed Forces when he was 28.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.