PREECEVILLE- Melvin Stone of Preeceville turned a century old surrounded by many family and friends on Oct. 14 at the Preeceville Personal Care Home.
He was born and raised in Montreal and after the First World War he meet the love of his live Doris, and the couple settled down and raised four children. The couple was married 73 years before her passing.
The couple stayed in Montreal for a while before they moved to Dartmouth to be closer to their son for a few years. In retirement, the couple moved to Preeceville in 2006 to be near their daughter.
When his wife’s health started to fail, the couple moved into the Preeceville Personal Care Home located in Sturgis. When his wife passed away and the home in Sturgis closed its doors, he was moved to Preeceville, were he is currently residing.
Melvin enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy as a decoder, and served for three years before he was discharged.
“As a decoder for the Navy, I had an important job of decoding message before they could be sent to the ground troops,” said Stone. “Many of the messages were very difficult to decode and I was provided with some training but learned the trade quickly. I was never deployed to the ships and did what they asked me to do.” he said.
Stone spent some time as a commissioner in the Navy stationed in Halifax for a brief time before he was discharged.
“Granddad remains in good health both physically and mentally and is very spry for his age,” said his granddaughter Katherine Vandle of Yorkton
