Fred Arsenault’s birthday cards are steadily piling up at his son’s Toronto home.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Ron Arsenault quietly posted a message on Facebook expressing hope his father, Fred, a Second World War veteran who turns 100 on March 6, will receive 100 cards for his birthday.
Arsenault has already lost count of how many cards have been received but even the bin full of mail he got on Friday was enough to surpass his original objective – to make his father's 100th birthday one to remember.
By the Monday after the Super Bowl, his social media post had been shared on Reddit, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto mayor John Tory had encouraged followers of their social media accounts to send Fred a birthday greeting. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added similar encouragement the next day.
Island ties
Fred is a native of St. Louis, P.E.I. He moved to Toronto for work in 1963. He and his wife, Yvonne, retired to his St. Louis homestead in 1980. In 2009, the year after Yvonne's death, Fred moved back to Ontario to live with Ron. Last May, he moved into the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre in Toronto. From a family of six, Fred has a sister living in Ontario, and a brother, Emanuel (Manny), living in Kensington, P.E.I.
Fred's other son, Wayne, lives in Hamilton, Ont.
Going global
In a recent telephone interview from his Toronto home, Ron Arsenault told the Journal Pioneer he expected the goal would be easily surpassed, but admitted, “I don’t think anybody expected it like this, the way it’s going.”
It’s gone global, he said, noting cards have already been received from Romania, Czech Republic and several other countries.
“In Holland, it’s just gone wild, because Dad was involved in the liberation of the Netherlands, and they think the world of Canadians.
“I’ve seen actual videos of people putting cards in the mailbox and posting it online that it’s coming here from Holland.”
Because the campaign is still fairly new, most of the cards being delivered to Arsenault's door are “local.”
“We’re on a first-name basis with the mailman,” Arsenault chuckled.
He added that he was a bit concerned the mail carrier might be annoyed about having to deliver so many cards to his door.
His response? “He’s so looking forward to it. He says, ‘I’m going to have stories to tell my kids, my co-workers'.”
April Delaney of Deblois, P.E.I., said her great uncle Fred is more like a grandfather to her. She said her family has a trip planned to Toronto next month to celebrate the centenarian’s birthday.
“He was actually the person who walked me down the aisle at my wedding.”
Ron Arsenault sent a card last fall to Jim South of Texas, who requested 100 cards for his 100th birthday. South, Arsenault learned, received approximately 100,000 cards.
By the way his card campaign has taken off, and with still more than three weeks to go until his father’s birthday, Arsenault said it has been suggested to him that he shouldn’t be surprised if 300,000 cards arrive at his door.
The challenge, he admitted, is finding his mail in the daily arrivals.
Getting mail is very meaningful to his father, he added.
“He used to tell me he’d be in (the trenches) and the odd letter he’d get (was) from his Mom: So, he would be reading this letter in the middle of the night, complete darkness, but he could read it from the tracers going overhead.”
Since moving to Toronto, he would cheerfully announce the mail’s daily arrival.
Arsenault said none of the cards have been delivered to his father yet, but he has been advised he will have lots to open.
“He says, ‘thank you, thank you, you’re doing all this for me.’ I say, ‘Hey if it wasn’t for him and all his comrades, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing right now'.”
Fred's war effort
Fred joined the Second World War effort with the Prince Edward Island Highlanders and was later transferred to the Cape Breton Highlanders. He fought in the Italian campaign, carrying the Bren gun, and was part of the Canadian delegation that helped liberate Holland. He was a faithful participant and flag-bearer in the Tignish Legion’s Remembrance Day services and, in recent years, has attended services in Ottawa.
He shared more about the war in later years, but “nothing gruesome,” his son said. Arsenault knows his father was once buried alive when a shell exploded near him.
“Then his brothers-in-arms, they dug him out, took him to the hospital, patched him up and brought him back to the front lines.”
Recently, Arsenault received a letter from someone asking if his father had served with Daniel J. MacDonald. MacDonald later became a P.E.I. Member of Parliament and served as Minister of Veterans Affairs
“That was my Dad’s sergeant.”
Asked if the cards are playing on his emotions, Arsenault responds, “Oh, you have no idea. They’re pouring their heart and souls in these cards.”
Cards for Fred Arsenault’s 100th birthday can be mailed to:
Fred Arsenault,
9 Kenmore Ave.,
Toronto, ON, Canada
M1K 1B3.
