OTTAWA — When Nancy Payne's son was killed in Afghanistan in 2006, his superior told the Lansdowne, Ont., mother that her son should never have been there.
“They knew they had someone good. He could have gone a lot, a lot further, if he hadn't gone to Afghanistan,” Payne recalled.
“Yes, that's what his boss said: 'I shouldn't have let him go because he had a lot of potential.'
Cpl. Randy Joseph Payne was killed in action on April 22, 2006, while serving in the military's “close protection team,” a unit tasked with protecting dignitaries such as the prime minister or chief of the defense staff.
Randy was guarding the brigadier general. David Fraser, now retired, was at the time of the murder just three months into his service and two years after he joined the Armed Forces as a military police officer.
“He loved what he did,” Payne said.
“You know, it was Randy. All the excitement and adrenaline, yeah, it was him.”
Fraser was not with the squad when a roadside bomb hit their armored personnel carrier, known as the G-wagon, as they were returning to Kandahar airfield. Randy was one of four soldiers killed in the explosion.
At the time, it was the deadliest attack on Canadian forces in four years. Randy was the 15th Canadian soldier killed at the time.
“General Fraser had flown out in a helicopter the night before. So the next day, Randy and the team headed back to Kandahar base,” Payne recalls.
“So I think the people who did it, the Taliban, thought Frazier was in the car Randy was driving and Frazier had left the night before. So they took four innocent people away.”
On Tuesday, Nancy will lay a wreath at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on behalf of all the mothers of Canadian soldiers killed in action.
Earlier this month, the Royal Canadian Legion named her this year's national Mother of the Silver Cross. Each year, the Legion honors the mother of a fallen soldier to represent all mothers who have had a child die while serving in the military.
“It’s a huge, humbling feeling that they trusted me with this,” she said. “Of course it’s a great honor.”
Besides laying wreaths, she had a busy schedule in the nation's capital, meeting with dignitaries and attending events.
“I’m not young anymore, so this will definitely be a challenge,” she said lightheartedly.
Nancy has laid a wreath at the local Memorial Day ceremony every year since Randy's murder, but this year will be the first in a long time that she will also attend the ceremony with her husband, as they usually attend different ceremonies in their area.
“We're spread out, so we're not both in the same place, so we're constantly in the community,” Nancy said.
The Payne family has a long history of service in the Canadian Armed Forces. Her husband David served 30 years in the CAF Infantry, her other son Chris served 20 years in the Army and her uncle served in the Second World War.
Even son Randy is now an Air Force combat engineer.
As Nancy laid the wreaths, she said she reflected on what it was like for her family members going to war.
“Especially in the last hours, minutes, what they had to go through,” she said.
“And then of course I think about Randy, what it was like for them.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2025.
