two days in no mans land

our irish family lost four men that i know of in ww1, the english side i don't know, but likely as many or more. as a boy grampa lost four uncles in the great war, three army and one in the navy. all the great war veterans are gone now. as a boy of 12-13 grampa had the job/ privilege of taking the horse and cart down to meet the ships and pick up his uncles and other relatives who got to come home on leave; he said this was a job he was very proud of. his partner sandy was a veteran of the trenches and i know these men had a big influence on his life. when i was 18-19 i worked for a fuel agent; my main job in the winter was delivering furnace oil; i had 600 customers and it was a hectic route. i had one customer who lived in a little wee house in a poor area; whenever i filled his oil tank he always came out and asked me to come in for a cup of tea; as busy as i was, i always had tea with him. he was in his eighties and lived alone; he was a tall man but stooped over; i knew he had one leg shorter than the other because he wore one shoe with about a four inch lift on the sole; one of his arms also seemed siezed up. he seemed a very gentle, kind person also very lonely. his little house was spotless; the first few times we had tea it was just polite conversation between strangers; i never asked him about his injuries or where he got them. one day over tea he told me i was about the same age he was when he went overseas to fight in the great war; he stuck out his leg and pulled his pantleg up expoing the boot with the lift; "i got this and the bum arm at passchendaele". he had gone "over the top" and before long german machine gun bullets had hit him in the elbow and in the knee; he laid in the mud of no mans land for two days before stretcher bearers were able to reach him and get him to an aid station; after four years in hospital in england he was returned to canada as a disabled ww1 veteran. he said "if they ever tell you you should go fight their wars, run in the other direction and run as fast as you can!" shortly after this he was no longer on my delivery list; i don't know if he passed on or maybe went to a home; i will always be glad i took the time to have tea with this man and i wish i could remember his name.