Love and Remembrance

November 11th, 2016

Remembrance Day

As I prepare to attend Remembrance Day services

in the morning

I remember especially with love

My father

who squeaked into the lines

of the 31st Battalion

despite his young age,

and was wounded at Cambrai

on the 11th of October, 1918

My darling husband,

and the band of brothers

who were his crew -

those men who kept the bond close

for seventy years

until death came to each of them.

My two brothers-in-law

who I never met,

and who left a void in their families' lives

when they were killed;

one at Falaise,

and the other in the Hochwald Forest.

We visited their graves when

we traveled to Europe in 1995...

Charles carrying a small rock from the

hills of home which he had 

embedded in a plaque and

attached to their graves

 - a bit of home to keep them company

as they lay at rest far

from those who loved them best.

As the service progresses, and we come to the 

Reading of the Names of the Fallen

my heart catches

and I hear echoes of my 

dear one's voice

as he called the names over the years...

I am grateful that there are no sons' names

to add to the list of

the bravest and best.....