My dear Uncle was a Para and landed in France on D-Day 1944 on the secret mission.
On the plane, he was seated beside a 17 year old Private Hopkins who said: "I'm scared, Corp."
Uncle replied: "We all am mate, but we gorra get on with it. Stick by me I'll mek sure yo'me all right."
They landed in pitch blackness and realised they had overshot the beaches and landed in an enemy field.
Uncle Reg whispered: "Stay still 'til morning."
But something startled the terrified Private and he reached for his gun, before a round of fire from behind and German tanks in front.
The rest of them were captured and taken to a POW camp where they remained until the end of the war.
But as they were loaded into the truck under arrest, a war photographer captured the moment on camera.
No-one knew about the picture until my uncle and some of his regiment were visiting a museum in France 50 years later.
He was looking through a brochure and his thumb landed on it.
"Ooh, look Ivy - it's me ," he cried out to the faithful sweetheart he married as soon as he came home.
All his pals on the journey with him bought up the rest of the copies and Uncle Reg "autographed" them on the coach. He was a bit of showman.
Which is why 20 years ago I turned his and my Aunt's story into a show with music to take to the Edinburgh Festival and tour around England.
Every year until he was too ill to go, he went to France to commemorate D-Day and always remembered to put a posy on the grave of young Private Hopkins.
On the 60th anniversary of D-Day he was too ill to travel to France and in the latter stages of Alzheimer's but a special ceremony was arranged in Lichfield.
I walked up with him to receive his medal because my aunt was too emotional.
It was the proudest moment of my life when he turned and asked loudly: "Why have I been called out first?"
I whispered, "Because you're the best" - forgetting to mention his name Brownhill pushed him to the head of the queue...
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