Day 38 of 365 - Remembrance
Today is Remembrance Day, when we remember all our veterans, both living and deceased, who fought for the freedom will still live in today in Canada.
When I was growing up, I remember coloring pictures of poppies, learning the poem In Flanders Fields, and sometimes going with my class to the local cenotaph for Remembrance Day services. But, I never really had a personal understanding of what it was about. I had this notion that war was something that had happened far away and a concept that those who served were heroes, but not much beyond that.
I am a post-war child, a child of the 50's. In those times, in my family at least, details of war time service were not discussed. I had great uncles who had served in the First World War and uncles who had served in the Second World War. But I never really knew what they did.
Once, I overhead an adult conversation mentioning someone who was 'shell-shocked'. Since I'd never heard the term, I asked what it meant but, I was sent away, told I didn't need to know. Now, of course we understand this as PTSD, but then it just remained a mystery to me.
I guess it was sort of a patriotic thing to keep our national focus on the victories of the wars and the post-war economic boom. But the result, for me anyway, was to be fairly ignorant about what those who served actually experienced.
It is only in more recent years that I have become more informed, not about my own relatives so much, but those in my husband's family. This was due to my sister-in-law, recently deceased, who took on the role of researching and documenting her family tree. Their grandfather who had served in the First World War, wrote frequent letters home to his mother, from training right through to active service. These letters were later typed up and kept in diary form as a piece of family heritage. My sister-in-law at one point sent the diary off to be copied into digital form for the Memories and Letters project of the National Archives. My family had the opportunity to read the original diary and our sons were fascinated by it.
My husband's father also served in the Second World War, but rarely spoke about it. We only learned more about his experiences in recent years via stories uncovered by his daughter in her research. Our eldest son has taken over the family tree duties in the past few years and has shared more information as he finds it.
I feel kind of sad that a lot of veterans felt that they could not speak publicly about what they experienced while at war. Maybe when they went to the Legion or the Wing they talked with their peers there. But, many probably suffered in silence. I certainly hope that is less the case today, and that veterans have access to services they need to process their traumatic experiences. None of us are served by simply putting a patriotic spin on what are often the wretched events of war. I am grateful for the memories shared.
When I was growing up, I remember coloring pictures of poppies, learning the poem In Flanders Fields, and sometimes going with my class to the local cenotaph for Remembrance Day services. But, I never really had a personal understanding of what it was about. I had this notion that war was something that had happened far away and a concept that those who served were heroes, but not much beyond that.
I am a post-war child, a child of the 50's. In those times, in my family at least, details of war time service were not discussed. I had great uncles who had served in the First World War and uncles who had served in the Second World War. But I never really knew what they did.
Once, I overhead an adult conversation mentioning someone who was 'shell-shocked'. Since I'd never heard the term, I asked what it meant but, I was sent away, told I didn't need to know. Now, of course we understand this as PTSD, but then it just remained a mystery to me.
I guess it was sort of a patriotic thing to keep our national focus on the victories of the wars and the post-war economic boom. But the result, for me anyway, was to be fairly ignorant about what those who served actually experienced.
It is only in more recent years that I have become more informed, not about my own relatives so much, but those in my husband's family. This was due to my sister-in-law, recently deceased, who took on the role of researching and documenting her family tree. Their grandfather who had served in the First World War, wrote frequent letters home to his mother, from training right through to active service. These letters were later typed up and kept in diary form as a piece of family heritage. My sister-in-law at one point sent the diary off to be copied into digital form for the Memories and Letters project of the National Archives. My family had the opportunity to read the original diary and our sons were fascinated by it.
My husband's father also served in the Second World War, but rarely spoke about it. We only learned more about his experiences in recent years via stories uncovered by his daughter in her research. Our eldest son has taken over the family tree duties in the past few years and has shared more information as he finds it.
I feel kind of sad that a lot of veterans felt that they could not speak publicly about what they experienced while at war. Maybe when they went to the Legion or the Wing they talked with their peers there. But, many probably suffered in silence. I certainly hope that is less the case today, and that veterans have access to services they need to process their traumatic experiences. None of us are served by simply putting a patriotic spin on what are often the wretched events of war. I am grateful for the memories shared.
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