Mementos, photos, certificates and accolades layer Lloyd Jones bright suite at The Waterford in Tsawwassen: a jar of sand from Juno beach where he landed just after D Day, the Olympic torch he carried through the streets in 2010, a grey chunk of the fallen Berlin wall. He picks up a black and white photo of a regiment of young men, each in identical uniform. “Here’s a picture before D Day,” he says and takes a moment to run his finger across the image and pick himself out.
“I sit here and think, ‘Oh boy, am I lucky.’ Because I was in those situations where I might not have been lucky.” Many of the young men Lloyd served with didn’t return from deployment. Lloyd thinks of them and reflects on his days at the front with Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders where he served as a rifleman, Bren gunner and dispatch rider.
But Lloyd has a way of looking at the positive things in life and lets the negative fall away. When he thinks about the good that came from the war, he recalls meeting a sweet nurse named Kae at the military hospital in Winnipeg when he returned to Canada. With deep reverence, he refers to Kae—his wife,—as ‘my good lady’.
“I’ve had a very good wife and family,” says Lloyd with tenderness, “My good lady has been very good to me, without her, things might have been different.”
In the years since returning to civilian life, Lloyd has poured his time and energy into serving his fellow Canadians at home.
If a person’s service record were a book, Lloyd’s would be an encyclopedia; 27 years serving as a volunteer with the Tsawwassen Community Policing unit, a member of the Delta Hospital Foundation, a leader of the local Legion #289, director of the Amos Ferguson Manor residence, a former director of the Shriners of BC and Yukon. There’s no way to track the amount of money raised, parades marched in or lives impacted. By way of explanation for his extraordinary life choices, Lloyd returns to Kae, “I’ve made use of every moment because I had my good lady with me.”
Making use of every moment is why Lloyd was named Delta Citizen of the Year in 2018. It’s a title he wears as proudly the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers he received last year and a myriad of other awards and medals he has been awarded, including the Legion of Honour, France’s highest military honour.
“I just love people and want to make their lives a bit better in any way I can,” says Lloyd about being awarded Citizen of the year. “This was a great honour, and I’m very humbled by this gesture from the community.”
“Lloyd is Mr Community,” says Tania Dusevic, manager at The Waterford. “He’s a force to be reckoned! His life is evidence that you can make a positive impact on the world at any age!”
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