Melvin J. O’Reilly of Windsor, Ont., says there was a Legion branch with a growing membership it could no longer accommodate without a new building to meet the demands for social, cultural and recreational facilities, including dance floor, bowling, billiards and racquetball courts. What about the older veterans? Well, there’d be a nice room for them with a couple of card tables for cribbage and euchre and a radio and television set.

The seniors were incensed, Mr. O’Reilly continues. They had struggled for 50 years to build up the branch and now were to be relegated to a back room.

Pondering how to make their point, the First World War veterans started storytelling. One asked: Whom would you like to be buried beside (wives excluded for story purposes)?

One interested in Egyptian history said Cleopatra or the Queen of Sheba. The second, who enjoyed English literature, said Charlotte or Emily Bronte. The third, a movie buff, said Marilyn Monroe. The fourth, a keen student of French movies, said Brigitte Bardot.

“But she’s not dead yet,” the others protested.

“And neither am I,” shouted No. 4.

When the branch executive heard the story, the separate room for seniors was scrapped. O’Reilly, incidentally, carried the story to the dominion convention at Penticton, B.C., in 1980 for a seminar on aging veterans.