Leaving A Long-Time Legion Family Behind

Nov 14, 2013

On November 11, Peter Brugmans' eyes welled up with tears at the Sharbot Lake Legion following the Remembrance Day service at the Soldiers Memorial Hall. Brugmans and his wife Marion just recently sold their house on Bobs Lake and will be moving to Collingwood in order to be closer to their three children and two grand children. The tears he said are the result of looking both back and forward; back in remembrance of those he has loved and lost, and to this community of people who have become almost family to him and whom he will soon be leaving. “When we moved here we thought that it would be our last move. But that changed since we have found it increasingly hard to get together with our children and grandchildren and often only see them once or twice a year. That and the fact that I am getting older is the reason that we have decided to move closer to them”, Brugmans said.

He was born in Holland in 1936 and moved with Marion to Bobs Lake in 1995. He joined the Sharbot Lake Legion as an associate member at that time, and since then he has made some very close friends in the community as a Legion member, as a volunteer at Northern Frontenac Community Services, as a member of the Bedford Catholic church and as a volunteer with the OPP's Cottage Watch program.

Brugmans said that the last few weeks have been especially emotional for him both due to the upcoming move and also because of the feelings that Remembrance Day always brings. Brugmans spoke about his father, who fought in the Dutch Army and later in the British Infantry. In between those services his father, who at the time was already married with three sons, was picked up by the Germans and went to work in a German munitions factory until, when granted one week's leave, he left the factory never to return. Instead, he went underground, assisting people fleeing the Germans. Peter recalled his father hiding one Canadian paratrooper named Jim O'Brien in the attic of the family home in St. Oedenrode, Holland.

In 1952 Brugmans' family moved to Canada, first to a farm in Manitoba, where his father worked, and later to Athens, Ontario. They would finally settle in Morrisburg, and it was there that a long-time neighbor recognized the picture of the paratrooper, Jim O'Brien, which led to the family having a chance to meet him again.

Brugmans and his father worked together helping to construct the St. Lawrence Seaway but his father unfortunately died of cancer in 1957. "It was sad because things were just starting to pick up for the family before he passed away,” Brugmans said.

He continued to work at the seaway until 1961 and then married his wife Marion. Together they had a family of their own and it is that family that they now feel needs their attention most. And so on November 20, Peter and Marion will be saying their final good byes to the members of the community, whom they have come to know and love over the last two decades. “It's hard to leave and say goodbye because we have made so many good friends here but we hope that we will be back to visit soon.” Peter said that he plans to join the Legion in Collingwood soon after his arrival there.