Michelle (Basic) Hendry - Fine Artist & Author

Artist and Author - Landscapes and Ruins

You are here: Home / Exploring Heritage / Remembrance

Remembrance

By

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields, John McCrae

The photo above was taken last year at the Nipissing Museum in the small town by that name south-west of North Bay, Ontario. It is a photocopy of the original manuscript for John McCrae’s famous, “In Flanders Fields”. The poem is known worldwide as a sign of remembrance. The original, along with all of his manuscripts, was given to Mrs. Jean Cameron Smith, a resident of Nipissing, by McCrae while she served with him as a field nurse during World War I. It is said that Mrs. Cameron Smith was present when McCrae died. Sadly, Mrs. Cameron Smith was killed in a fire at her home in 1942. All of the documents were also lost.

In my quest for the history of the region, I have found a number of soldier’s graves, taken note of the memorials and spoken to war veterans Frank Cooper and most recently, Spitfire Pilot Stan Socha. My grandfather, a veteran of WWII and a navy man, passed last year. The generations that fought in the two world wars are nearly gone now. It is up to us to remember their sacrifices and the sacrifices of soldiers and peace keepers in our own times. Because they fought and died, we continue to have the freedom to make our own choices – for better or worse.

If you cannot join the gatherings of of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, remember to take a moment of silence and honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lest we forget…

Poppy
Poppy for the Royal Canadian Legion

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. I have had actually had people yell at me when I was working at Timmys when I told them we were honoring the people that have died and are currently helping our country. I had someone say “you still have a minute until 11, take my order!” :/ I eventually had to say words that on a normal day would have gotten me fired. I couldn’t believe how disrespectful they were.

    My fear is that once the only history we have of the wars is in textbooks that people will forget and that would be a horrible thing to happen. its starting to happen in some places now :/

  3. Awww, Michell, this brought tears to my eyes. So beautiful and poignant. So many have lost their lives and sooo many have suffered life-long physical or emotional crippling. My heart goes out to these people. I’ve had friends who have suffered for years who were in Viet Nam and every time I talk with them I pray that we humans can reach a point in our evolution where war no longer exists. I think that is probably far down the road, but I want to believe that there will be an end to all war. That is my prayer for today. Thank you dear Michelle for touching my heart today. Hugs, Robin

  4. Dear Michelle ~ Remembrance Day has been very meaningful and emotional over here this year…remembering the dead from two world wars seemed especially poignant together with Afganistan

    Thank you

  6. Remembrance Day has always given me a strange mix of feelings-my parents were German children during WWII. Of all their war anecdotes, the one that comes to mind most often was of one of their cousins that refused kill. Of course he did not escape Hitlers draft and promptly died in the first moments of battle–it defined heroism to me.

Trackbacks