You too are loved, Donald Brasseur.

I have no way of knowing if you were aware of that before you died last week. But there are people who care about you. Some of whom you met. Some of whom you never will.

I learned about you from a friend, who said folks in the military community were talking about you, concerned you would be laid to rest with no one watching. But I'll get to that.

I found your funeral notice on the Smith's Funeral Home website.

The information is scant: Donald Joseph Brasseur. Born Apr. 17, 1925. Died Dec. 17, 2014. Service to be held Dec. 24, 10:30 a.m. at Smith's on Brant Street in Burlington. No family mentioned. The spot where people can share memories of you was blank.

There was just one other thing: you were a member of the Royal Canadian Army.

I called Philippe Lauriault, funeral director at Smith's. He told me you died in a Burlington hospital and staff there knew you had no next of kin, little money and were believed to be a war vet. They called government agencies that bury those without family.

It was confirmed you did serve in the Second World War, for just a year, 1944-45. You were 18 when you became a soldier.

Lauriault contacted The Last Post Fund, which pays for funeral and burial costs of veterans with no other means. That fund is looking after you now.

"It is there so we can afford veterans all the dignities and honour they deserve," says Lauriault.

Meanwhile, he has been in touch with Library Archives of Canada, hoping to learn more about your military career. He must make an application through Freedom of Information legislation, a long, arduous, often futile process. Your funeral is Wednesday.

I tried calling, emailing the archives. I never heard back.

Your service will be officiated by Padre Bill Thomas, a veteran associated with the navy reserves. You will be buried. If family later comes forward and wants cremation, that can be accommodated, but as Lauriault points out, the reverse cannot be done.

You will, hopefully, be interred in a veterans' section of a cemetery. Likely Woodland Cemetery, although Lauriault is still working on this.

"We're tasked with doing what we can," he says. "This is an unusual situation."

Ken Lloyd is also doing what he can for you, Donald.

He heard about you through Thomas. Lloyd is president of both the Hamilton Signals Association and Friends of the HMCS Haida. He is army and navy.

"We are burying an old soldier," he says. "In essence, that's all we know about him."

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He will try to research you through Veterans' Affairs, but results won't be quick. Lloyd wants a military presence at your funeral, so he reached out for help. He thinks a piper from Dundas will be there. And one or two naval vets in uniform.

I ask why he is doing this for a stranger, when he likely has other things to do the day before Christmas.

"It's our duty to give honour," he says.

I tried to find out more about you, Donald. I came up with a phone listing for someone with your name in Burlington and got no answer. I found an address and went to a lovely highrise, where everyone said hello to me. No answer when I buzzed.

I found an employee and explained my mission. She listened silently and I figured I was on the wrong path. Then she began to cry.

She said you were a very nice man. You lived in this building a long time, before it was sold and renovated and spruced up. You have no family and, yes, you were in the war.

You had dementia. Another tenant watched over you. She died a few months ago. You were unable to understand that. A health care worker began to care for you.

The woman dries her eyes and says what I have been thinking as I tried to piece together your life.

This is the same community that filled the streets for Cpl. Nathan Cirillo's funeral, she says. That mourned the young reservist gunned down in Ottawa at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That was moved by his final moments and the words of the Good Samaritan who tried to save him: "You are loved," she whispered in his ear.

Thousands may not turn out for your funeral, Donald, but you will not leave this earth alone.

Thank you for your service to our country. You are loved.