I meet many interesting people and hear many interesting stories in my job as reporter but every once in a while a story will reach out and touch you in a special way.
On May 10, I saw the obituary for Lieutenant Colonel Howard Cook. Although I only met with him a dozen times, he is on my list of most interesting people. I first met him when I was assigned to do a Remembrance Day story. When I heard he was a colonel, I expected to meet someone very regimented, organized and military like. Instead I found someone warm, friendly, intelligent and sensitive.
I interviewed him in his home that he shared with his wife Cecile Bielesh-Cook but she was busy at the museum that day. Howard started by showing me a photo album of a trip he took through Europe with his family and then moved on to a number of newspaper clippings. During the interview that lasted hours, he made several trips downstairs to collect more papers and information. Once when he came back upstairs he said, with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, that he had boxes of papers in the basement and it drives his wife nuts.
What unraveled was an absolutely fascinating story of a daring rescue operation that happened in 1948. At the time he was just 17 years old and a non-commissioned officer. Too young to be sent into active duty, the army made use of his skills as a trained paratrooper and wireless operator by posting him in the Northwest Territories. One day, he was called out to be a part of a rescue operation in which he was parachuted into dangerous rugged land with his heavy wireless communication equipment, which he carried over difficult terrain. The mission was successful and they saved the life of Cannon Turner, a wounded Church of England missionary.
Howard told me about how his best friend, only a few months older, was killed in active duty. As he talked about his many years of service, he would often drift away, caught up in the emotion of the memories. After minutes of silence, he would look at me and say, “war is hell."
During our interview that afternoon, he stood up and sang a song for me and read a poem he wrote for his mother. He told me about his family, including his daughter who died of cancer.
I began to share with him about my own family and my daughter who loves dinosaurs. Upon hearing that, he sprang to life and once again disappeared downstairs for a period of time. He returned with a series of books called Dinosaur Soup that his daughter wrote before she died. The books feature a young girl whose best friend was a real live dinosaur. My daughter and I read all of them and enjoyed them very much.
So I would just like to take a moment to say good-bye to Howard Cook, a heroic colonel, a singer, a poet and an interesting man who touched my heart.
