Remembering Rudy — The Patchwork Plane Escape By Blake Dafoe Melnick Every Remembrance Day, I find myself reflecting on the stories we inherit.  The ones tucked inside old letters, yellowed newspaper clippings, and the quiet corners of family memory. Some stories we grow up hearing again and again. Others remain hidden until the right moment arrives, and they find us. For me, one of those stories belongs to my grandfathers' nephew, Flying Officer  Rudolpho “Rudy” Mendizabal , a young RCAF pilot whose life ended far too soon. He was only twenty-five.  I didn’t know Rudy growing up as he died before I was born, nor was I aware of this story until much later in life.  Like many of his generation, Rudy never spoke of his time during the war or about his own courage. In fact Rudy's family would never have known about his exploits if others had not told the story. Tucked inside the Dafoe family archives was a fragile clipping from  The Toronto Evening Telegram   ...