Brandon couple plans a trip to remember

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This article was published 15/02/2025 (294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Don Sullivan drops two photographs on his dining room table. The first shows he and his son standing at a hotel. The second shows the hotel 50 years earlier, surrounded by soldiers during the Second World War.

As he and his wife prepare to visit Europe again to attend the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Holland, Sullivan told the Sun he brought his teenage boy to the historic site in 1994 to pass along a message: remember the sacrifices.

“We both have a calling to do this,” Sullivan said. “To honour my dad, and [to honour] Jan’s uncle.”

Don’s father Frank Sullivan left Brandon to volunteer for military service, landed on D-Day and survived the war. He later shared stories with his son that instilled a lifetime of respect and reverence for what the soldiers faced during the war. Jan’s uncle, Ernest Turner, volunteered and left Two Creeks, fought in the Netherlands and died from wounds he sustained while clearing landmines.

The Brandon husband and wife, who are in their 70s, believe this may be the last time they can make the trip to the Second World War monuments. They told the Sun they want to keep the remembrance tradition alive as the world slowly ages away from the world war.

“The line you read in everything, you know, is, ‘Lest we forget,’” Jan said.

The couple plans to visit memorials, war museums, war cemeteries and towns that Canadian soldiers liberated as they pushed through Holland during the invasion in 1944. They are set to fly out of Canada in late April and spend a week overseas.

Don said he feels compelled to show this type of respect, especially for his father. He said the war had a serious impact on the man, who survived combat but died in his 60s. Now a grandfather, Don said he has carried a lifelong impression that formed when his father used to share stories to him in his teenage years.

“There’s no question my dad was my hero,” said Don. “I’m doing this for my dad.”

As time passes on, the Brandon man pointed out that generations are one or two steps removed from the soldiers who fought in the Second World War. He said it’s natural that this will create a bit more distance between youth and the impacts of the war, but that nevertheless the history of Canadians in the war is something worth witnessing.

“Every Canadian should get an opportunity to go over and see that,” he said. “Especially the beaches in Holland. It makes you very proud to be Canadian.”

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com