One of the last Second World War veterans of Sudbury, Ont., turns 100 years old

Gerry Wagner's daughters say they only recently started learning more about their father's experience in the Second World War. 

"Dad was very closed-mouth," said his eldest, Bonnie Courchesne. "It's just in the last few years that we started having more information." 

"I think back over the years, and I'm almost positive that my dad had PTSD, but it wasn't diagnosed in those days."

She thinks it's trips to the hospital, and the end of life growing nearer, that made her father want to acknowledge what happened when he was deployed to Italy.

"He wanted to get stuff off his chest," said Courchesne. "He was worried he wasn't going to go to heaven, and for a Christian that's very important."

Wagner was born in the Pembroke area before moving to Sudbury with his father, a diamond drill foreman. 

He enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces when he turned 17 years old. He was eager to be deployed but had to wait two more years before being sent overseas. 

He married his partner of 65 years in a church in Creighton on the eve of the D-Day landing, and was deployed to Italy shortly after just as the Second World War was coming to an end.

After his service, he returned to the Sudbury area to work in the mining industry. 

To this day, his grandchildren call him every November 11th to thank him for his service.

"They always thank grandpa for what he's done for the country to keep us safe and democratic," said Courchesne.