One For The Ages

A daughter shares her parents’ enduring love storyby Sue Averill, Qualicum Beach, B.C.

- Sue Averill

The gathering winds of war were but a whisper in 1938 when my father Bill Turner, a first-year engineering student, set eyes on the young woman who would become the love of his life. He made his way across s the crowded dance floor of the Palace Ballroom in Blackpool, l, England, and asked Doris Williamson to dance. Dad has always said he knew from that moment there would be no other girl for him. Like countless other young couples of the time, however, their romance was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Dad joined the Merchant Marine and later the Royal Air Force and their courtship was conducted in stolen moments when he was home on leave. Dad earned his wings in South Africa with the RAF and was then stationed in Italy, where he piloted Spitfires, Hurricanes and Walruses, while Mum nursed in a local hospital and kept the home fires burning.

As the war raged on, they were married in January 1944. After a brief honeymoon in Edinburgh, Dad returned to his squadron in Italy. On one occasion he was given leave—on the condition he remain in Italy. In his desperation to see his new bride, however, he ignored orders and “hitched” a ride with Bomber Command on a flight to England, jumping from the aircraft as it taxied to the aerodrome to avoid detection. After a joyful reunion with Mum, he returned to Italy the same way he had left to resume his duties. Thankfully, the following year the guns were finally silenced and they were reunited permanently.