In Remembrance
November 11, 2025
Today, wars rage, and 21-gun salutes will occur around the world to commemorate the fallen in past wars.
Canadians and Britons wear poppies every November in memory of those who sacrificed their lives since the First World War. A disproportionate number of Canadians served and died in that war, and subsequent ones. And the poppy has become the symbol of sacrifice because of a poignant and famous poem written in 1915 by a Canadian physician who served during that hideous war, John McCrae. It is called “In Flanders’ Field” and it is beautiful.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That marks 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.
I always cry reading this poem AND to keep that tradition, when at a Remembrance Service, I cry there as well. Such losses - such sacrifices - so many - And still wars go on. Thanks for your tribute Diane.
On remembrance day we should also remember those brave men of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion who went to fight fascism in Spain .