Veteran and retired CN employee celebrates 100th birthday touring Canada by train | 24CA News
It was a small ceremony on the platform of Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station for Bill Hamill’s one hundredth birthday.
Family, buddies and a few employees arrived to commemorate his 43 years of service with CN rail. He’s nonetheless the lifetime of the celebration even on the century mark.
“I can’t run a four-minute mile anymore,” Hamill quipped. His finest time now? “Eight or nine hours.”
Hamill’s birthday want was to take yet one more practice trip throughout the nation to see his youthful brother Bob, the final surviving member of the family alongside Bill.
Working the rails was the household commerce. His father and two different brothers additionally labored for CN.
Not too lengthy after getting his begin, Hamill was given go away to hitch the Royal Canadian Air Force within the Second World War. He flew greater than 30 missions as a bomber gunner over Germany and France.
“We bombed on D-Day. 6:10 in the morning,” Hamill stated. “We had no fear at all.”
Before setting out on his cross-Canada journey Hamill obtained the possibility to have fun with household and buddies in Gibsons.
Last yr, he went crusing for his 99th birthday. To mark 100, he joked about doing one thing a bit of extra daring.
“He said how about jumping out of a Lancaster bomber with a parachute,” stated his daughter Mary-Lou Hamill.
There are not any grand plans but on how one can have fun 101. Hamill figures his travelling days can have reached the top of the road after this huge journey.
Any extra adventures? “Not likely,” stated Hamill.
You’ve carried out all of it? “I guess I have.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
