# Firefighter Wilson- A Touching Story



## Bruce Monkhouse (20 Dec 2010)

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/charles_adler/2010/12/16/16582641.html

Monday, December 20, 2010
Comment Columnists / Charles Adler
Country is in your debt, Firefighter Wilson

By CHARLES ADLER, QMI Agency


Since this is our last visit in this space before 2011, I wanted to recognize the single most important event of 2010 that never got the headlines it so richly deserved.
Citizens of Adler Nation got to know it as the Firefighter Wilson story and, while it didn’t happen on Christmas Day, it has Christmas Miracle written all over it.

Sgt. Rob Cullen of York Regional Police was just answering the call of duty one day in a town about an hour’s drive north of Toronto. Something happened that day that moved him to write a different kind of police report, in an e-mail to our national radio show.
“Last night, while working in my usual role as a police platoon sergeant, we were called to a VSA — vital signs absent — in the basement apartment of a house just north of Keswick.

“The victim was 78. A retired firefighter. His small basement apartment was tidy. Upon the walls were tonnes of framed photos.
“He was very well read. History books lined his bookshelves. His specialty was the Avro Arrow.

“He was a huge supporter of our troops. An article from the Toronto Sun about the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion sat on his desk. Pictures of cops and firefighters were found here and there.
“But he had no next of kin. I had no one to visit, no one to see. I left the detectives and constable to await the coroner, and have the body removed to its final rest.

“As I walked down the driveway, the constable followed me and said: ‘Sarge, they’re gonna carry this guy out in a plastic bag. All the neighbours are watching. He was a firefighter for 30 years. He’s got no one ... we can’t let him go like that.
“‘Can you find us a Canadian flag, so that when they take him out of the house, we can lay it on the gurney when they roll him to the hearse?’

“It was 7:30 on a Tuesday night. Where to find a flag? The Dollar Store. Sure enough, they had one. I bought the flag, and took it back to the scene.
“Firefighter Robert Wilson was brought up from his apartment. Before he left the door, the flag was draped across him, to honour the life of a man who was willing to give it at any time.

“The neighbours watched in silent respect. The people from the funeral home tucked the flag secure and removed it with him. I expect it will be buried with him, too.
“For a short time, he wasn’t alone. He was a firefighter, a hero. He was a Canadian. All it took was a flag to show it.
“Maybe it’s time we find our heroes before their only honour comes from a dollar store.”

Sgt. Cullen, our listeners and readers everywhere want to thank you and your crew for your service to York Region, and indeed to the country. And I’d like to think that somewhere up there Firefighter Wilson feels for the first time in a very long time, that he is not alone.

Merry Christmas to you Firefighter Wilson. A country thanks you, and walks with you. This is Canada and you’ll never walk alone.

— Adler is a national talk radio host on the Corus Radio Network and at charlesadler.com. He will be a talk show host on the Sun News Network

charles.adler@sunmedia.ca


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## brihard (20 Dec 2010)

God damn.

As a rule, I don't get choked up about stuff. This had me pretty damned close.


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