Pte. Aidan Goulding had big dreams that will never be realized, his grieving mother says.
Goulding, 23, was one of four service members killed on Saturday when a grass fire swept through Canadian Forces Base Wainwright. Dozens more were injured.
His mother, Sonia Monk, says Goulding quit a steady job as a mechanic earlier this year to join the Canadian military, declaring that he had only one life to live, and he wanted to dedicate it to protecting his country.
In an emotional interview on Monday from her home on Vancouver Island, Monk spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal about her son’s unfulfilled dreams, her family’s grief, and the moment she first heard the devastating news. Here is part of their conversation.
How are you and your family holding up?
It’s extremely difficult, because Aidan is in our thoughts a 100 per cent of the time. His brother was in pieces when I came home [yesterday]. So it’s been rough, very rough. And it doesn’t seem real.
How old is your other son?
He’s 24.
So close in age.
They were best friends.
Goulding, right, bids goodbye to his mother and brother at the airport before leaving to begin his service in the Canadian military earlier this year. His mother says her two sons were best friends. (Submitted by Sonia Monk)
What do you say in those moments? Or maybe there’s nothing to say, it’s just to be together.
I say a lot of time, “We’ll get through this, we’ll get through this.” Aidan doesn’t, wouldn’t, want us to be like this and to stop our lives.
Aidan had such a fantastic sense of humour and forged through the tough times. He didn’t ever wallow in things.
What were you doing as that news came in?
I had just come home from grocery shopping with my husband. And it was Wylder, my son, who texted me and said, “Do you know what’s happening in Wainwright, right now?”
And I was like, “No.”
So he told me there was an explosion and a fire. This was via text. And so I started to look it up and then I turned on the news. And then my heart just dropped.
And that’s all we did is watch the news. We waited for the phone to ring. Wylder and I were texting Aidan like crazy.
As the hours went by, I just started thinking no news is not good news. We should have heard from him by now if he’s injured and in a hospital, or if he is walking around and OK. And my husband kept saying, “No, I have a feeling it’s not going to be Aidan.”
That’s what we did, like, until 11-11:30 at night, when our doorbell rang.
What did they say?
There were three officers and a chaplain. I didn’t want to open the door because I just knew.
When I opened the door, they said, “Can we come in?” And they said, “I’m very sorry to tell you that your son, Aidan Goulding, has been killed. And, you know, honestly, I don’t know what they said after that.”
Sonia. It’s very generous of you to talk to us in the middle of all of this. You mentioned his sense of humour and his resilience. What did he tell you about why he wanted so much to join the military?
He told me in December last year that he’d been thinking, you know, “I have one life to live and I really don’t want to do what I’m doing for the rest of my life, but I feel like I need to protect our country. I feel I need to join the army.”
I said, “You’ve got a great job. You’re making lots of money. You’ve gone to school. Why, you know, why would you do this?”
And he said, “Look, I’ve got one life to live and this is what I want to do.”
I asked him if he could just put it off for a year because, as we all know, there’s things going on in the world and chances would be that he would be deployed. But he said, “No, I’m going to talk to a recruiter.”
They took him quite quick. They took him in February.
Mother of soldier killed at CFB Wainwright says he wanted to protect Canada
When was the last time you spoke with Aidan?
Thanksgiving. We had a big Thanksgiving party with my husband’s daughters and their friends. And Aidan’s best friend was there, and his brother was there, and so we phoned him and had a video call. And we all told him how much we loved him and missed him and wished he was there.
We all said, “Well, we’ll see you at Christmas!” And his best friend and Wylder said, “We’ll see you in a month or so!” Because they were going to go visit him.
What did he say? How was he feeling about those early months and fitting in there?
He really took to it. He really loved, you know, his new family. He really loved all the people that he trained with. He loved his commanding officers.
He actually really loved the discipline. He had a hard time, but he forged through that basic training. He was sick a couple of times, but he was determined. And that’s the thing about Aidan was, if he had a goal, he will accomplish it.
He told us he was really excited about going to Latvia. He told us they would be peacekeeping. Super excited about that.
Monk says Goulding had a great sense of humour and strong-willed determination to achieve his goals. (Submitted by Sonia Monk)
Are there memories that you’re holding closest, or things you would like our listeners to know about Aidan beyond this moment?
Aidan’s life was cut so short because he had such a huge goal.
He really wanted to be part of special ops. That’s why he worked so hard. That’s what he listened and studied. And for me, all signs pointed that he was going to accomplish his goal, but unfortunately not.
Sonya, I hope you feel the support from people across the country. It certainly doesn’t change what happened, but I hope it helps somewhat. Please take care, and thank you so much for making time for us. Thank you.
Thank you so much for asking about my beautiful son.
