"It's a hard life, let me tell you," says 89-year-old Ed Bray. "You ain't never lived hard until you go through what I've been through."

Bray served in World War II. He was at Normandy on D-Day and has two Purple Hearts.

Today, the soldier in him still refuses to surrender.

"I want to read one book," he says. "I don't care if it's about Mickey Mouse. I want to read one book before I die."

Recently, he got to do just that — a moral takeaway for anyone who thinks they're too old to do something.

(WATCH the beautiful video below or READ the story from CBS's Steve Hartman)