rodney cairns, seven, travelled 300 miles over eight days in a second world war ford jeep. and young rodney cairns will be among the congregation today. he first met harry in arromanches on the 75th anniversary of d day in 2019. a chance meeting that became a cherished friendship. we were like best friends, because we would chat over the phone so many times. and we would chat for about an hour. he served in the war and fought for our country. i liked listening to his stories because he told me all about when he was young, when he was fighting, when he got onto the beach. veterans are just amazing. rodney, well i said very fond of harry, but rodney informed me, no, he loved him. and, yes, they were very close and they would send each other photographs and cards. harry made rodney an honorary member of the normandy veterans association. a lovely friendship. friendship was so important to him. those of today and those of 1944.
i said, no i didn t. before i knew what happened, harry was out of the car and having a go at the guy. i thought, hang on a minute, you re 96! once a warrior. yeah. take care, my darling. god bless. thank you very much. and you miss him? oh, yeah. there are not many people in life that you will miss for a long time. yeah, i miss him all right. but we ll have his funeral. that will be chaos! rodney cairns, seven, travelled 300 miles over eight days in a second world war ford jeep. and young rodney cairns will be among the congregation today. he first met harry in arromanches on the 75th anniversary of d day in 2019. a chance meeting that became a cherished friendship. we were like best friends,