Passing the Torch
NL Health Services honours those who have served and continue to serve in times of war, military conflict and peace.
This year, we’re sharing three stories from veterans at the Caribou Memorial Veteran’s Pavilion in St. John’s: one from employee Lee Wicks and two videos from WWII residents Joesph Primm and Frederick Carter who tell the story of how they enlisted.
Mr. Carter recently passed, and we would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family and thank them for supporting us in sharing his story.
Passing the Torch
When Corporal Lee Wicks first stood in the atrium at the Caribou Memorial Veteran’s Pavilion in St. John’s, he felt an immediate connection. Wicks is a retired veteran who served 18 years with the British Royal Airforce and was deployed to countries including Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wicks relocated from England to St. John’s in 2013 and took on the role as support services manager at the Pavilion in the spring of this year.
“The first time I stood in the atrium, I felt a sense of home,” he says. “The pictures and the artwork – the scenes and the stories they tell – are the same as mine.”
Wicks and his team in dietary, housekeeping and laundry services, are responsible for ensuring the comfort of the veterans and others in care at the Pavilion.
The oldest of those veterans served in WWII. “Some of them struggle to recall day-to-day events,” says Wicks. “But if you ask them about their service, they spring to life, a gleam comes to their eye, and they can’t wait to share a story or two.”
Each year, a Remembrance Day ceremony is held for residents and staff in the atrium. The veterans who remain proudly don their uniforms. After the ceremony, cookies made specially by dietary staff in the shape of a poppy are handed out. This year, Lee and his staff developed a new cookie which will be officially unveiled on November 11. Early taste testers indicate it will be a big success!
The new Remembrance cookie.
Wicks sees his role at the Pavilion as a passing of the torch, so to speak. “It’s my turn to serve them,” he says. “To do what I can to make their lives comfortable, to treat them with the respect and dignity they deserve.”
Lee Wicks enjoys time in the kitchen.
And as a veteran himself, it’s especially meaningful for him to honour Remembrance Day.
This year, Wicks will stand proud alongside the veterans of the pavilion during their Remembrance Day ceremony. And as he has done each year since arriving in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2013, he’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with veterans at the War Memorial ceremony in St. John’s, regardless of the weather, to pay his respects and bow his head in silence.
“Those two-minutes don’t belong to me,” he says. “They belong to every veteran who served, and to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Enlistment Stories
Veterans Frederick Carter and Joseph Primm tell the story of how they enlisted in WWII.