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Poppies


Subdeacon Joe

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In Canada almost every adult wears a poppy starting in late Oct to Nov 11.  At the national ceremony in Ottawa, right after the service most people lay their poppy on the tomb of the unknown soldier, as it is in the same vicinity to the national monument.

 

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 quarrel with the foe:

To with failing hands we throw

The torch: be yours to hold it high.

If ye breaks faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

 

Written by Lieutenant Colonel, John McCrae, Medical Officer, Canadian Army, 1915 while taking a break from treating the wounded.

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My grandad, Edward F. W. Winskill, was a Vancouver BC native who was an Royal Air Force pilot in the Great War, flying as an artillery spotter. He was never shot down, but had an engine failure at 4,000 feet and landed behind German lines. Not too far behind; he evaded and got a whiff of mustard gas, not enough for damage. He often remarked that those biplanes glided well!

 

Those of my generation grew up among men of my grandad's generation who fought in WWI. Indeed, I was a grown man of 29 years when he died. Then....not more than a few years ago now, they were all gone-- every last WWI veteran in the world.

 

It won't be long before the same is true of WWII veterans. Men who were very young at the war's end, who still survive, are in their mid-90s now. There really are not many left.

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