Remembering on Veteran's Day

Photo Credit: Mez Merrill

“I come from the South and I know what war 

is, for I have seen its terrible wreckage and 

ruin. It is easy for me as President to declare

 war. I do not have to fight, and neither do 

the gentlemen on the Hill who now clamor 

for it. 

It is some poor farmer's boy, or the son of 

some poor widow - who will have to do the

fighting and dying.”  


- President Woodrow Wilson



Thank you to all the veterans of all the wars since the 'war to

 end all wars' ended 100 years ago. 

Thank you to my husband, Ted, who served for 28 years in

 the U.S. Navy.

Ted speaks at his retirement ceremony.

Thank you to his brother Ron, still serving in the U.S. Army.

Ron enjoying a light moment with his son Jack at Ted's retirement party.

There is a touching  story behind the Remembrance Poppy. 

It begins with the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John 

McCrae:


 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.

A woman named Moina Michael was struck by the end of the poem, and wrote an answering poem, "We Shall Keep The Faith":

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

Moina vowed always to wear a poppy as an emblem of remembrance, and she shared that tradition with others. The rest of the tale of the Remembrance Poppy can be seen here.