remember... lest we forget...remember

today is remembrance day.

my father is one old soldier who deserves to be remembered...he was in training in England with the RAF when his crew went missing on a bombing training run. he was in the hospital with illness at the time. he never got over it, always lived with the "survivor complex". he was alive, but something inside him died that night with his crew. we honor you dad for your sacrifice for your country.

and we will not forget.

my dear old grandfather- who had no voice because he was gassed in the french trenches during WWI...how i wish he had lived long enough for me to know him. all i know of him is from my mother, long gone to be with him in heaven. how can i remember someone i never knew? oh, i can. i can. he is not forgotten.


one of the first poems my father ever read to me was the haunting "In Flanders fields", and i shall add it here.

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 the 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,
we shall not sleep
tho poppies blow
in Flanders fields...

(i wrote that all from memory without checking...that's how deeply it sank into my subconscious as a child...)

remember!