Walking into the home of Esquimalt resident and veteran Roy Kenneth Jones, one of the first things you'll see is a large family tree that fills half the wall. Every room is filled with family photos and there's a whole wall, a memorial, dedicated to Jones' time in the military.
Jones' grandson, Cedric, plays toy cars at his feet.
The moment is in sharp contrast to the one Jones describes: Germany after the Second World War had ended. Jones was 18.
"When I first got there, it was all bombed, all of it. And to see and talk to them. I felt, coming from a large family, so much compassion for them all," Jones said describing the German youth struggling in the aftermath of war, including those who had been in the military. "Most of them got killed. They had to put up with somebody that ruled them with an iron fist," he said, referring to Hitler.
It's family and "those that allowed them to be free" that Jones wants people to think about this Remembrance Day.
Jones, who served in the Canadian dental and medical outfit, recalls what it was like in Hanover, Germany after the war had ended and the Cold War had begun.
"You could smell everything. You smelled burnt stuff, and that's what you smelt when you were out. [Hanover] had been bombed so terribly ... You see the people living on the streets; they had to live in all these bombed-out places. They never had a place to go. Never had a job. Never had food. Never had nothing."
Nearly all of Jones' family served in the military, including his father (First World War), sister (Air Force), brother (Navy) and another brother (military) who served during the Second World War in the second wave that went into Holland.
While Jones went after the war, he was still affected by the horrors. He and the other C Squadron Armoured Corps stationed at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were shown films "just about every other night" on what happened there when it was active, including the medical treatments and experiments on Jewish prisoners.
Bergen-Belsen is considered by many to be the embodiment of Nazi crimes: at least 52,000 of the nearly 120,000 prisoners died of starvation, disease or abuse.
One of the worst experiments that stood out to Roy Jones' daughter, Je-Anne Jones, who was quietly listening, was "the rabbits" – women who had objects inserted into open wounds to create infection and see if it could be cured for when the soldiers came back.
"I used to get sick watching them [the films]," Roy Jones said. "How could somebody do that stuff to these people?"
"And we go inside the base and there are graves up there. Two thousand people buried. The people that make the weapons are the only ones that gain anything out of the war," Je-Anne Jones said. "The rest of it is suffering and loss of human life."
Je-Anne, who describes herself as a historian, said she has been studying the war for 25 years now.
Her career was in end-of-life care and she worked with a few veterans, bringing them down to the legion once a week. She described it as a place where healing can happen after the brutality of war.
"When you walk in there, there's history, there's laughter, there's a social aspect that is so beautiful. These men cry together and survive together and move on together."
Her experiences eventually inspired her to apply to Victoria Legion 292, where she now works as a bartender. "It was like I finally found where I belong," she said.
Roy Jones' career in the dental/medical outfit involved the Air Force, the Navy and the Army, and travel to over 30 countries. Often, he served in peacekeeping missions. His outfit moved around wherever they were needed, doing work for soldiers for NATO nations. Interacting with people from other countries was one of his favourite parts of the job.
A navy posting in 1952 brought him to Victoria, where he still lives. He married Janet (who was known in the community for her advocacy in wheelchair access) creating a home full of love for their three children, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. The Jones' family is very involved at Esquimalt United Church, and even does a "full, complete service every now and then" including the sermons.
From the outside, it appears that Jones has tried to combat the horrors of what he saw after the Second World War with an opposite force: love.
"All we can do is pass on to other people that love is the best way to go. To love one another. And that's what happens in this place here," Roy Jones said.
