My story today is about the highly decorated Second World War veteran Armand Denicola and his wife Doreen Denicola.
Armand has indeed earned and received many Second World War medals of honour, most recently the National Order of the Legion of Honour from France for his part in the liberation of France.
His experiences at Juno Beach and in the Battle of Normandy are things he would choose to be able to forget.
Armand, of Italian decent, was born in 1922 in Benevento, Italy which is located approximately 50 kilometres northeast of Naples.
Armand's father came to Canada in the early 1900s and his older brother Joe was soon to follow.
Both found work on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which is now the Canadian National Railway (CNR).
They lived in the Willow River area and then moved on to Prince George, working at laying tracks across the big steel railway bridge which crosses the Fraser River.
The rest of the Denicola family arrived here in 1925 when Armand was three and a half years old.
He was raised on the family homestead on Foreman Road and enlisted in the Canadian Scottish Regiment when he was 20 years old.
Prior to enlisting he worked as a cowboy in the Chilcotin area for the C1 Ranch and the Chilko Ranch near Alexis Creek, west of Williams Lake.
After nearly three years in the armed forces he returned to the Chilcotin for a short time.
In 1947, and after his dad passed away, Armand moved back to Foreman Road and took up farming to help his mother; he has been here ever since.
Two years later in 1949 the big two-storey log homestead home was destroyed by fire.
Armand went into partnership operating a saw mill on Foreman Road. At the same time he farmed potatoes and eggs commercially which he sold to Roy Yip's chain of seven grocery stores.
Doreen was born in Virden, Manitoba and calls herself a prairie chicken while Armand calls her a Manitoba thistle.
She worked for the Manitoba Telephone Company and moved to Prince George in 1955; with her previous telephone company experience she was hired immediately to work for North West Telephone Company.
Doreen said, "We had a lot of radio telephone subscribers in those days servicing the vast number of sawmill operators in the area and not all of them could afford to have radio telephones. Soon the big lumber companies arrived and everything changed and so did the telecommunication technology. BC Tel came in and things changed even more."
Armand said - with a twinkle in his eye, "I met Doreen in 1960. We were so in love we didn't know if it was daylight or dark. I can still remember the day that I met her; I was threshing in a field of oats on Foreman Road."
Armand and Doreen got married in 1964 and started their life together building a new house on the quarter section of land next to the homestead.
During those years Doreen stayed home and raised the family, making ends meet by gardening, looking after the green house and canning nearly all of their winter supply of food.
Armand worked in the logging industry and later at the Dominion Experimental Farm.
Some time later he went to work at the Ministry of Transport as the supervisor of runway maintenance at the airport until his retirement in 1984.
After his retirement he worked for the ministry on a part time basis during the winter keeping the runways clear.
Armand and Doreen raised three children who grew up and still live here in Prince George: Drew (Kelly) retired Assistant Fire Chief for the Prince George Fire department, Sanna who went from the law profession at Hope Heinrich to Administrative Assistant for the Regional Director of Chronic Diseases at Northern Health and Neal (Brenda) who are now operating the farm.
They have eight grand children, one deceased grand child and two great grandchildren.
Doreen proudly said, "We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. When Neal took over the farm we did not have to move out of our family home. We are proud to say that the farm is now home to the fourth generation of Denicola's. Armand stays active on the farm and was kept on as the 'Special Advisor.'
"I love to paint landscapes and write poetry. I still have a big garden and I still do a lot of canning and I even make a bit of wine. We are both busy all the time with family and friends."
Armand will be 93 in July; you can always find him along with his buddies at Mr. G's at 2945 E Hwy 16.
In fact it is not unusual to find him there twice a day.
Doreen said, "We had a lot of hard times and some very sad times along the way; we worked hard and we were thrifty. We had a certain sense of satisfaction by always living within our means and still accomplishing many goals.
"We taught our children the basic values and that they had to do their share in keeping the family operating and moving forward as a unit. We always spent time together as a family and it all paid off. I believe that the biggest problem today is that many people have no personal feeling of satisfaction - this has to change."
