Friends reunited on Canadian soil (From Stroud News and Journal)

Friends reunited on Canadian soil

TWO old Marling School pals were together again in their adopted country of Canada recently - after one survived a near-fatal heart attack.

In July last year, Reg Redston, 92, told doctors to pull the plug on his life support machine and said goodbye to his weeping family after he was told he had just hours to live.

But the former airman made an amazing overnight recovery, and last month he dropped in on former schoolmate Norman Smith, 96, to reminisce about their decades-old friendship.

"They did not expect me to leave the hospital," said Reg, who lives in Kingston, Ontario.

"A lady doctor came to see me. I said 'remove all life-support instruments and tubes at midnight'.

"The family waited till midnight and I said my farewell to each of them, before they left after a 24 hour vigil.

"The nurse disconnected all the tubes and I was moved to another room to die. Instead, I slept very well and phoned my wife Bev the next morning."

Reg was born on December 12, 1912, giving him the unique birth date of 12/12/12, and attended Marling School before emigrating to Canada in 1930.

"I was the class clown in high school," he said. "I used to keep the place going with jokes."

The heart attack was not the first time that Reg has had a brush with death.

He vividly remembers nearly ditching his plane in the sea off the North African coast while serving as a Canadian Air Force navigator in the Second World War.

Grateful for surviving his heart attack, Reg arranged to be taken up to see his former Marling pal, who lives in a nursing home in nearby Bancroft.

Former banker Mr Smith said: "We haven't seen each other for six or seven years.

"He arranged for someone to bring him here to see me.

"I knew all six brothers and now Reg is the only one left."

The duo swapped stories of old school chums from the Five Valleys and amazed retirement home staff with memories stretching back more than 80 years.