CAMBRIDGE - Allan Green left his grieving family a gift. They found it after a traffic collision claimed his life at 89.

It's the story of his remarkable life, in three dozen handwritten pages.

One page says: Things I remember and wish to share with my children grandchildren and other members of our family.

The stories help explain why he became a public servant, devoted Anglican and tireless volunteer - named Jaycee Citizen of the Year in Cambridge in 1986.

Listen to him.

July 18, 1944 on the Atlantic Ocean, on board HMCS Assiniboine

Green, 19, is on watch duty. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943, hunting German submarines on Atlantic convoys and in the English Channel.

A petty officer approaches. "I need the sea boats checked to make sure they are secure," the officer says.

Veteran sailors stay quiet. "I'll go," Green says.

It is a general rule in the navy 'Never volunteer for anything.' I was soon to learn the significance of that rule.

Green makes his way to the sea boats. Both are secure in rough seas. Now he needs to return to the quarterdeck.

The ship (a destroyer) was pitching and rolling constantly in waves that reached 30 to 40 feet in height and the wind was around 70-80 knots coming from our stern.

Although I didn't have much seagoing experience I had already learned to pay a lot of respect to the sea as it can be very destructive and dangerous.

He waits, to take a reading on the ship and sea. The destroyer rolls frequently. Each roll spills up to 10 feet of solid water across the deck. Then he moves.

Just as I hit the deck the ship took a 'queer' roll and the Atlantic was at my feet. Quickly turning I jumped for the lifeline, a steel cable about six feet six inches above the deck. I managed to grab the line with both hands just as I was inundated by solid Atlantic water.

Hanging on with all my strength I was being swept along the line and could feel my sea boots leave my feet and my clothes being pulled away from my body. All I could think of was to hang on or I would be a goner.

The sea finally won and I was swept toward the ship's side. My legs went through the guard rail and over the side but I was lucky enough to catch the rail with my upper body and had enough strength to pull myself back onto the deck as the ship rolled upward.

There was a hatch about 20 feet away. I crawled on my hands and knees to the hatch and safety. Just as I got into the cover of the hatch the ship rolled again and BANG - the hatch was hit with about three feet of solid water. But I was safe - cold, in shock but safe.

I realized that I had just been spared my life by a miracle. Thanking God for my life I made a covenant to be of service to Him and mankind for the remainder of my life.

Green kept his word. After leaving the navy he eventually joined the federal public service, employed to help people find jobs.

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He served Trinity Anglican Church. He served the community, volunteering for causes that include the Canadian Diabetes Association, boy scouts, YMCA, St. John Ambulance, telephone distress centre, Toastmasters, naval veterans. At times he served on six volunteer boards at once.

Green earned accolades for decades of volunteering. His proud family knows this. What they didn't know is what made him the man he was. Now he has explained it to them, in stories some of his family had never heard before.

Among the revelations - his greatest regret was dropping out of high school. (He was able to catch up and attend university after the Second World War.)

His family - including wife Dorothy and their five children - was his greatest blessing.

He never forgot growing up poor in the Great Depression. I can well remember going barefoot all summer in 1938 to save my shoes for school and church in the fall and winter ahead. We didn't have much but what we did have was paid for at time of purchase.

The Second World War shaped him. During my service in the navy I experienced many things such as hatred, fear, bravery, loyalty comradeship, group dynamics and leadership of a type that can't be experienced in any other way.

I saw life and humans in situations common only to war. I learned what fear really means. I learned to live in close association with men from all walks of life and soon learned they were very human regardless of what their background had been.

Since that time I have attempted to see things as they really are with an 'open mind' approach. I have tried to understand others as they are and to see them as they would see me, without prejudice or malice and to treat them as I would have them treat me.

Green died Feb. 28 after two cars collided on Coronation Boulevard in Cambridge. Waterloo Regional Police are still investigating.

Green was driving his car. Daughter Nancy Hogarth was his passenger. She was injured. In the other car, two people were injured.

Some of Green's grieving kin find it unfair that he did not die more peacefully after an exemplary life. Hogarth is at peace with it.

The careful words he left behind have helped her understand that he was ready to go, whenever he got the call.

"His work was done here," she says. "He was needed somewhere else more."