He opened up a magazine and wound up re-opening up a chapter in his life from seven decades ago.

Robert Carter, 91, says he was thumbing through a Legion Magazine earlier this year when he came across an article on his old friend and fellow veteran Charlie Walker.

“Oh I recognized his face for sure,” Carter laughed. “I looked at it and thought, ‘God, I know that guy, Charlie.’ Like we hadn’t seen each other since right after the war I guess.”

Carter and Walker began their friendship back in 1943 when the two began dating sisters.

The two men ended up going their separate ways in World War II, with Carter joining the navy and Walker taking to the skies with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

After the war, Walker married his girlfriend, while Carter’s relationship fell apart. Carter said when he saw Walker’s image some 70 years later, he thought it was the perfect opportunity for an update on his long-lost love.

“Once Amy got away, I lost contact all together,” he said. “I saw Charlie’s picture, I thought, good chance I can find out what happened to the family.”

Carter reached out to the writer and photographer of the article, Ludmila Schnaider, who then arranged a meeting between the two veterans.

“A week after (the article came out), I get an email from Bob that he told me, ‘I recognize my friend and I want to meet him,’” Schnaider said. “Like a bomb (went off) I went, ‘Wow. Seventy years after he found his friend.”

On April 3, Schnaider drove with Carter to Walker’s rural home in Roseneath, just north of Cobourg.

“When I came to the door and Charlie came out, it was just like, it happened yesterday,” Carter said. “It was nice. It was a good feeling. I told a lot of people when I went home that night that was one of the best afternoons I spent in a long time.”

Walker, 92, said he was surprised to hear from his long lost friend so many years later.

“It’s amazing what happens sometimes in one’s lifetime when people out of the dim past suddenly get together,” he said.

Schnaider is the creator of the historical art project My Dear Veterans, a non-profit exhibit currently on display at city hall featuring 60 images of World War Two veterans. Walker and Carter are two of the service men featured in the exhibit.

Schnaider says the happy reunion was an unexpected bonus of a project she’s been tirelessly working on for the past two years.

“When I see their eyes, when I see how they are smiling … I think, ‘I need to continue this. This is a good thing I am doing,’” she said.

My Dear Veterans is on display now at Toronto City Hall in the rotunda and runs until June 7.

Photos used with permission from Ludmila Schnaider.