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A Second World War veteran living in Regina is celebrating a historic milestone.
On Friday, dozens of residents at the Renaissance Retirement Residence, along with members of the Legion and Regina-Wascana MP Michael Kram, celebrated the 100th birthday of Norman Johnson.
Regina-Wascana MP Michael Kram helped Norman Johnson celebrate his 100th birthday on March 3, 2023. (Shane Clausing/980 CJME)
“It’s overwhelming, to tell you the truth,” Johnson said after seeing all the people who showed up to celebrate his birthday. “I did not expect this. I told them to just play it down, but it’s quite a show they put on.”
Johnson was born and raised in North Shields, England. He came to Canada in order to receive his air force training so he could serve in the Second World War.
“Naturally, I started in the U.K. and then we went through all the preliminary stuff and they figured if you had enough stuff, you could go over to Canada to train as a pilot, so I did my training over here,” he explained.
He said he initially was stationed in Assiniboia and then went to Souris, Man., before going back to the United Kingdom to fight in the war.
After the conflict, he came back to Canada in 1950.
He was convinced to return to Canada by his sister. She and her husband were engineers and ended up in the country after their company sent them to Canada for work.
Once settled, Johnson worked for the Regina Leader-Post as a printer, and he also worked for a couple of other companies in the printing business.
Johnson said that after the war, he didn’t think about continuing to be a pilot. While he had a chance to help the United Kingdom in the Korean War, he says that chance fell through.
While he has hit the century mark, Johnson said he hasn’t thought about it much. He said waking up Friday felt like just another day.
Norman Johnson celebrated his 100th birthday on March 3, 2023. (Shane Clausing/980 CJME)
But he did note that living a lengthy life is something that’s common in his family. Others in his family have also lived past 100.
“My mother did it, my brother did it, and my sister lived until 96,” he said.
Johnson claims he hasn’t done anything out of the norm to reach 100 years of age.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you. I’ve never done anything special,” he explained. “I didn’t smoke and drank very little. That may have helped, I don’t know. It’s just genes, I guess.”
Reflecting on 100 years, he says a lot has changed.
“When I was a kid, we didn’t even have radios,” he said. “TV was a long way from there — (and) there was no traffic.”
