Remembrance

Today is Remembrance Day and we went to the Cenotaph for the Remembrance service, C., Husband and I. It was clear and sunny and not too cold.


It was a very different ceremony this year. This year the sacrifices of war are not an abstract concept or a distant memory. We were not only honouring the veterans and the dead of past wars...






...but also those who are in harm's way and coming home in flag-draped coffins right now, today. This year Canadians dying young on the battlefield is reality, not history.


Unsurprisingly the crowd was huge. Hundreds and hundreds of people.

Many, many people brought their children, many many toddlers there with their parents. I found it strangely touching that people were getting out of bed early on a Saturday and bundling up their two-and-three year olds (an event in itself) and taking them out to stand in the autumn chill for an hour. I saw parents hold their toddlers in their arms so that they could see the whole time, which must have been incredibly tiring.

There can be no reason for doing that other than wanting them to know this is important, it means something.


After the ceremony if you choose you can leave the poppy you've been wearing in your lapel on the steps of the Cenotaph or in a cross-shaped box, and we did that.

Today the politics of the war wasn't important. Today was a day to say thank you and please, please, we want all of you home safe. Soon. Somehow.


ronnie