In grade school in the days leading up to Remembrance Day, I remember taking home a small envelope, no bigger than the poppy tucked inside.
Parents replaced the poppy with a small donation for our veterans. They would send us back to school with a coin or a bill, something that said I remember.
The poppies then were much like today except the centre was made of felt. I remember assembling the poppy in class, threading the green centre and bright red flower onto a bent pin.
November 11
Every November 11th Remembrance Day, the students and teachers stood in silence at the appointed hour. I remember crying for men and women I didn’t know, but who looked very much like my grandparents.
As a young woman, I remember shopping in a large department store on November 11. At eleven o’clock, the overhead speakers went silent, and all around me people stopped and bowed their heads.
On this November 11th, I will again remember our veterans’ and their family’s sacrifices when I observe a moment of silence at eleven a.m.
Lest We Forget
Helping us all remember are two inspirational Canadians whose work shines a spotlight on our nation’s veterans.
In 2016, Elinor Florence published the stories of twenty-eight World War Two veterans. Many of the men and women she interviewed for My Favourite Veterans had never before told their story. In 2017 a veteran’s memorial banner project she spearheaded came to fruition. For the next few years in streets and towns in the Columbia Valley, banners honouring individual veterans will be unfurled and on display for October and November.
In 2018, filmmaker Eric Brunt, inspired by his grandfather, began a cross-Canada trip to capture the stories of World War Two veterans before they and their stories are lost to us. Brunt’s collection of stories is a documentary in the making called Last Ones Standing. You can read about his efforts in two CBC reports, one in 2018 and another earlier this month.
I’ll blame the warming weather that entices me outside, away from the keyboard, niggling emails, and a mess of chores. But how could I turn down a lunch with girlfriends? (That’s me on the left with Jennifer Manuel in the middle and Elinor Florence on the right.)
Or a walk in the sunshine? Those are the pigs that grunt their hellos when I pass by Orkney Farm. And the weekend farmers’ market—part social, part shopping—draws me in like a bee to nectar.