Lest we forget...

Throughout the world, at 11am on the 11th November, we stop to remember those who fell in battle and those who fought for their countries.

Why a Red Poppy on Remembrance Day?.

The red poppy, the Flanders poppy, was first described as the flower of remembrance by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, who went to France in World War I as a medical officer with the first Canadian contingent. At the second battle of Ypres in 1915, when in charge of a small first-aid post, he wrote in pencil on a page torn from his dispatch book:

Lieutenant Colonel McCrae was wounded in May 1918 and died after three days in a military hospital on the French coast.

On the eve of his death he allegedly said to the doctor, “Tell them this. If ye break faith with us who die we shall not sleep”. 

The red poppy has become an international symbol of sacrifice and remembrance.

My grandfather fought in that war.  He survived to live a long and fruitful life, but he never forgot what war was like.

Let's teach our children to love and respect their fellow human beings.  Let's teach them to cherish life and to be tolerant of others' beliefs.

May we know peace in our time.

April Blackbird