Old friends, new home: Veterans reunite at Elim

For Cliff Downey and Jim McCallum, home isn’t just a place to live—it’s a part of their history. The veterans first met decades ago at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Chilliwack where they served together. Today, they live on that same site, just steps apart in The Hawthorn at Elim Village Garrison Crossing.

Cliff first arrived at CFB Chilliwack in 1952 at the age of 20. While he was far away from his home in Ontario, Chilliwack felt familiar. “I arrived on the base and I loved it immediately,” he remembers. “I just took to the small community because I came from a small community.”

Jim’s path to Chilliwack started across the Atlantic. He first came with the British Army in 1971 to help build a bridge near Chilliwack Lake. Then, in 1977 he had an option of where to be posted. “I said, ‘I’ll take Chilliwack,’ because just five years earlier, I had been here,” Jim recalls.

Jim was posted as an instructor at the School of Military Engineering, where Cliff was the School Chief Warrant Officer. “We worked closely together, basically from the same office building,” Jim says. “Plus, we socialized together at the Sergeant’s Mess, a club that belonged to people of a certain rank, which we were a part of.”

The two shared not only a workplace but also a deep sense of camaraderie. “We were a community; we stuck together like glue.” Cliff remembers. “We didn’t have to leave the base to socialize, only when we had to buy groceries. We worked at the base, we lived right in this area here, and they were our friends, and our community became the relatives that we never had.”

Life at the base also came with memorable—and sometimes humorous—moments. Cliff recalls one dinner hosted by Jim and his wife: “He was going to serve haggis. Because of my position in the school, Jim had my late wife and I go first through the meal lineup. I had never, ever tasted haggis in my life… and let me go on record saying that I didn’t like it, but he never knew, and I never told anybody. I kept that to myself. However, the following year, he had the same party, and I did not have the haggis.”

Even after leaving active service, Chilliwack kept calling them back. Jim came back as a civilian in 1983 after completing his military service abroad and ran a hardware and locksmith business. Cliff returned in 1990 after living in Williams Lake. Their paths crossed again at The Hawthorn. “One day I was sitting there having a tea, and I heard this voice behind me,” Cliff says. “I said, ‘That can only be one man, and that has to be Jim McCallum.’ I turned around and said, ‘Jim, you need a haircut’—that’s a military expression. He turned and looked at me and he said, ‘Cliff Downey.’ That’s when I realized he was here.”

Today, Cliff and Jim are enjoying their retirement in a place that’s always felt like home to them. And from their suites, they can even see the old barracks and their former office—a reminder of their remarkable careers and service.