A Day of Double Importance — Life Downstream

On Veteran’s Day/Remembrance Day 2021, I read the following to my classes:

Today is Veteran’s Day. That it occurs on 11/11 is no coincidence. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. Around the world at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month people take a moment of silence to reflect on the human toll of war. Many of those called to battle did not go by choice, whether by draft or as a socioeconomic mechanism. On this day we reflect on their efforts, sacrifice, and the battle scars both visible and invisible. A poem I recited nearly every November growing up in Canada as we celebrated Remembrance Day was In Flanders Fields, by Canadian poet John McRae. McRae did not survive the war, but his words will live forever.

                 In Flanders 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 Flanders 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, though poppies grow
                                In Flanders fields.

The day after World War I ended, my paternal grandmother was born. The poppy is a symbol from the war for supporting the troops and many suggested to her mother, Mary, that they should name her daughter Poppy. Mary instead went with Marian. Marian died one year ago in Coquitlam, British Columbia, one day before her 102nd birthday. She was born on the frontier in rural Saskatchewan as the wild west was closing up shop, married a serviceman and lived in Europe and across Canada, educated, hundreds, if not thousands, of children in her career as a schoolteacher, and raised a child who would raise me with many of the same characteristics as Marian. She never failed to impress upon me the importance of this day and now it is doubly important to me. You do not need to be pro-war to be pro-veteran.