One of the most amazing experiences I had in relation to Remembrance Day and the sacrifice that was made by so many was when I was in Europe. My wife and I drove to Normandy and visited Juno Beach and one of the Canadian Cemeteries.
After traveling around for 2 months, I never would have thought a beach and a cemetery in a foreign country would make me feel so at HOME and so unbelievably proud and patriotic being a Canadian.
With fewer and fewer veterans alive from that time we have to preserve their/our history and make sure that the youth understand what happened.
Every day I wear a gold ring that was issued to my grandfather as thanks for his service in WWII (officer on a mine sweeper). When I was in Normandy he was still alive. I called him from there to say thank you. I can't tell you how much it meant to him and to me. (A few years later they made a commercial out of it ... for Bell i think ... total coincidence)
In Flander's Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flander's fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, tho poppies grow
In Flander's fields.
Liet. -Col. John McCrae
The Canadian Cemetery at Cintheaux contains the remains of 2,959 Canadian soldiers who helped free France from Nazi oppression.