Hi Bob.
I was just about to e-mail you my brother.
Dad's body washed ashore Sunday afternoon a short distance from our home.
John
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Missing man found in lake never got over wife's death, son says
Apr 22, 2008 11:24 AM
By: John Slykhuis, Staff Writer
Michael Chesterman served bravely aboard the British aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, during the Second World War that came under enemy fire more often than any other Royal Navy ship, but the highly-decorated veteran could not endure the death of his wife, Jean, last year.
Despondent over her passing and contemplating the loss of his independence, the proud, quiet man left all his possessions carefully lined up on his bedroom dresser and vanished into the windy night Jan. 14.
Last Sunday, a resident walking along Lake Drive found Mr. Chesterman’s body floating near the shore, just a stone’s throw from the home where he lived with his stepdaughter, Ivy.
The family had been prepared for the news, his son, John Chesterman, said.
“As soon as I got the call the day after he disappeared last January, I knew he’d gone into the lake,” he said. “A while ago, when my mom was really ill, we were prepared for her to die. He said to me in private, ‘You know if your mom passes away, I’m not going to stick around and be a burden to you kids’ and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘No I won’t, I’ll just go for a swim’.”
The police came over to his home soon after his father’s body was found, Mr. Chesterman said.
“They said, ‘We think it’s your dad’ and they knew it was and I knew it was, but they had to wait for a positive ID. I was ready for it. I’ve been preparing myself for the past three-plus months. It’s still hard. He was my dad, but it’s a relief, too. I know where he is and it’s over.”
Mr. Chesterman had high praise for the York Regional Police who led an exhaustive search for the missing man.
“They have been just fantastic. They all genuinely cared.”
The familiar photograph, circulated by police, on posters and in media reports, had been taken after Jean’s death.
“You could see how unhappy he was by that photo(graph). It’s not like he was before at all. He was a really strong, vital man,” Mr. Chesterman said of his father.
He will remember his father for his quiet kindness and intelligence.
“He wasn’t an emotional man. He never ever cried or showed any kind of emotion. He never told us he loved us or anything until I was 28 or 29 when he did. But he never had to. We knew,”
Mr. Chesterman said. “The day before he disappeared, he walked to Sutton to Briar Hill Cemetery to visit my mom’s grave. He really missed her. The only time I saw my dad break, ever, wasn’t the day she passed away, it was when I took him to funeral home in Sutton and we walked through the door and he said to the funeral director ‘Hi I’m Mike Chesterman. I lost my wife’. And then he went quiet and slumped over. It was the first time I saw him as hurt. He was never the same after that.”
There were many things his father kept to himself, Mr. Chesterman said.
“He was a boxing champion in the navy, but he never told anybody, not even mom. She caught him throwing some stuff out one day and she said, ‘What are you throwing out?’ He said, ‘Never mind’. She went and looked and it was his boxing trophies and his war medals. We never knew about any of this stuff. He would never talk about his wartime experiences.”
Mr. Chesterman’s father was very intelligent and well-read, he said.
“I read in his log book he achieved the highest standards in the Royal Navy academically. He loved poetry, birds, flowers, he was a great gardener. I’ll really miss him.”
His mother and father were also devoted foster parents, helping dozens of children over the years which resulted in their being awarded the provincial Heart of Gold Award in 1988 by then-Advocate owner Harry Stemp.
Michael Duke Chesterman was born in Warwickshire, England in 1924.
He died sometime in the early morning hours of Jan. 14 at age 83.
Missing man found in lake never got over wife's death, son says
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