TORONTO -- 98-year-old Second World War veteran Madge Trull attended a special Remembrance Day viewing thanks to friends at her Mississauga condominium.
"I lost a lot of friends, boyfriends, family. It means a great deal to me, and that's why I dab my eyes. I cry. I can't help it," Trull told CTV News Toronto Wednesday.
Trull normally attends the ceremony at Queen's Park. Her friend Matthew Williams, who runs the security at her condo, didn't want COVID-19 to prevent her from missing out. He set up a projector to show this year's ceremony that was streamed online.
"They've celebrated and paid their respects for so many years and to think as troubling as COVID is, I would hate to think that's the reason people can't pay their respects," Williams said. "They are they unspoken heroes and we need to keep remembering these people and doing what we can."
As a young woman in England when the war erupted, Trull volunteered with the Women's Royal Naval Service. She went on to decode secret Nazi messages.
"[It's] very difficult because you had to be very precision perfect. You didn't dare make a mistake. If you did the whole thing would get messed up and you know, it would hurt the boys lives," said Trull.
Trull said COVID-19 is difficult because families can’t see one another, but what's happening now is completely different compared to the war.
"You don’t know if those bombers were going to drop a bomb on you ... They used to send their fighter pilots and if you’re walking on the streets, they would machine gun you," said Trull.
Trull got engaged to a Canadian spitfire pilot. In 1944, he had plane trouble and went off the radar behind enemy lines for six months.
"All that time I didn't know where he was, whether he was dead or whether he was alive ... Two weeks after he went missing my mother died of cancer and I can still feel it," she said.
Her fiancé eventually found a way back to England. They married, came to Canada and had a family.
Since, Trull has met British an European royalty and several Ontario premiers.
She wears the codebreakers brooch in memory of the women she served alongside.
"I have a lot of love in me. A lot of love, so I can spread it around."
