By Helen Goldburn’s bedside at her home in England is a photograph of a young man which she always kisses before going to sleep.
Once she used to talk to the man as if he were in front of her, but that doesn’t happen any more. A companionable silence remains.
The man is her Saskatchewan-born father, the father she last saw in the summer of 1942 in England before he set off to Sicily to fight in the Second World War. Not that she remembers Phillip Anton Weisgerber or his departure.
She was, after all, only nine months old, the first and only child of Phillip and Francis Mary, who married a year earlier at Grayswood Church, near Haslemere in Surrey after meeting at a dance.
Helen would never see Dad again. He died in the Battle of Ortona three days before Christmas 1943, shot in the neck by a sniper. He was 29.
His personal effects were sent home: a wallet, sewing kit, a Bible and a dog tag, the informal name given to identification tags worn by soldiers. Later came his medals: the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal (1939-47), the Italy Star (1943-45), Defence Medal (1939-45), War Medal (1939-45) and 1939-45 Star.
As years passed Helen formed an intimate portrait of her father based on her mother’s memories, photographs and his letters home. It may not have been a traditional father-daughter relationship, but it was a deep and heartfelt one.
“I have known him all my life,” said Helen last Saturday after she flew from Britain to Canada for a special plaque presentation ceremony at the Barrhead branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
“He was a fun-loving man. I’ve got a picture of him holding a glass of beer with me on his knee, which gives me an idea about what kind of person he was.
“When he set out to war, he was only 27 or 28 and it was a great adventure for him.”
Born in Regina on July 10, 1914, her father lived in Bloomsbury before serving with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment as a Corporal.
The regiment was mobilized for war in September 1939 and as a unit of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division served in Sicily, Italy and north west Europe.
Weisgerber was killed on Dec. 22, 1943 and is buried in the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery, Italy.
Today there are 1,615 graves in the cemetery, of which more than 50 are unidentified and 1,375 are Canadian.
Helen said she had visited her father’s burial site.
On Saturday, Helen proudly wore her father’s medals and his sweetheart brooch to her mother.
“My mother never remarried after my father’s death,” she said.
Helen still has her late mother’s letters to her father, carefully sealed. They may provide more details about her father, but out of respect she has never opened them.
“They will be passed down through the generations,” said Helen.
Joining Helen at the Legion on Saturday were Richard and Pat Weisgerber (nephew), Linda and Olen Talma (niece), Michael and Kathy Weisgerber (nephew), Amee and Mark Kondrat (niece), Tony Weisgerber (nephew) and Kerri Weisgerber (niece).
Former MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, Ken Kowalski handed her a plaque with a picture of Phillip Anton Weisberger and a brief account of his war experience.
