‘My heart just dropped,’ says mother of Pte. Aidan Goulding
8:34Mother of soldier killed at CFB Wainwright says he wanted to protect his country
Sonia Monk is the mother of Pte. Aidan Goulding, one of four service members killed on Saturday when a grass fire swept through Canadian Forces Base Wainwright. She told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal about why her son quit his well-paying job as a mechanic in order to join the Canadian military.
Sonia Monk had just returned from grocery shopping on Vancouver Island when her son Wylder texted her: “Do you know what’s happening at Wainwright right now?”
“My heart just dropped,” Monk told CBC Radio’s As It Happens.
She spent the rest of the night anxiously watching the news and waiting for the phone to ring with an update about her son, Pte. Aidan Goulding. She knew people had died in the fire, but her husband felt sure that Goulding would be OK.
Then, at 11 p.m., there was a knock at the door.
“I didn’t want to open the door, because I just knew,” she said.
When she opened it, she was greeted by three military officers and a chaplain.
“They said, ‘I’m very sorry to tell you that your son, Aidan Golding, has been killed,'” she said. “Honestly, I don’t know what they said after that.”
When Goulding first told her in December that he was going to quit his job as a mechanic and enlist in the military, she says she tried to talk him out of it.
But Goulding was determined. She says he felt strongly that he had only one life to live, and he wanted to dedicate his life to protecting his country.
“That’s the thing about Aidan,” she said. “If he had a goal, he will accomplish it.”
While she awaits details about the fire, she says she can’t stop thinking about what happened to her son in his final moments.
“My greatest fear is how Aidan died. That is my nightmare. That is why I can’t sleep, because I just think: Did a fire engulf him?” she said, her voice trembling. “Aidan’s life was cut so short.”