*** Wear the Poppy on Your Heart ***

This evening I was quite taken by surprise when I discovered on the Remembrance Day banner I posted to Flickr a link to the “Casualty Details of Thomas Stanley Shackleton.”
Stanley was my mother-in –law’s brother and my husband’s uncle whom he was named after. It wasn’t long before Stan received from his mother his uncle’s memorial with all of his medals he was commemorated. But even though we had this in our belongings I never searched for more, other than being just content in remembering a young fellow who gave his life for our freedom and who was a part of Stan’s family. But tonight that changed when Norman( Shipcompass) http://www.flickr.com/photos/glosters/
found it in his heart to locate and retrieve information on Stan…just one more soldier...a soldier some of us knew.

This is the link Norman left me.

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2232659


Tomorrow wear a poppy on your heart…



.....And remember


“The poppy should be worn as close to the heart as possible on the left lapel of the outermost garment”

“An old poppy should never be reused.”

“Poppy’s found lying on the ground should be placed in a cemetery or at the foot of a war monument.”


“The poppy, a symbol of remembrance for those killed in combat, raises $16.5 million annually. This is a testament to Canadians and their wide respect for our troops. All poppy money collected by a Legion branch stays within that local community and pays for medical equipment, home services and long-term care facilities for ex-service people in need of financial assistance.”


“The average donation for a poppy is a loonie.”

Information and picture..... The Salvation Army

site...http://www.salvationarmy.ca/tag/canada/






*** In Flanders Fields ***

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 our 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, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

Below is the link to the site that brings to light how the poem was written...

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

~ Our Canadian Soldiers ~

Salute to a brave and modest nation
This is written in the perfectly succinct English manner..........enjoy.
A British news paper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read.
It is strange how it took someone in the UK to put it into words. Sunday Telegraph Article: "Salute to a brave and modest nation" - KevinMyers, The Sunday Telegraph, LONDON - UK
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does. It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall,waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor,blithely neglecting her yet again. That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it neverfully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle. Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British". The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is , they are Canadian. Thus MaryPickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, WilliamShatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers. Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peace keeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace keepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peace keeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia .Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-controlparatroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was thendisbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement forwhich, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit. So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selflessfriendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Ratherlike Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things forhonourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.

Please pass this on to anyone who is proud, and content to be Canadian; it is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in our quiet Canadian way.

Mike Wood

Captive in My Heart

Posted last November 11th/2007.
Created the collage and wrote the poem for this lovely romantic story during a time of darkness. Love prevails all!
I adore this so and wanted to post it again.Once again ...A Huge Thank you Norman, Lill and Tom.


In this pale moment of time
I am blinded in the deafened tunnels
Of this Great War
And have not heard from you yet!

Deadening hands…bitter cold from rain and snow
Unworkable to write down my avowals of love for you…
I feel as if I’ve reached the world’s end
Do you not care for me any more???

War desensitizes many
Yet not I … maybe a little… subconsciously!
I know I sense the loss and bear the wounds
As I watch the damp cold earth devour the young
Like it’s in the race for liberty

But only God‘s arms are ever near
And so I have the fortitude against the fear!

Ah, yes! The dreams; if not for the dreams!
My succor of my mortal being
To transport me away from this darkening hell!
My one and only solace is …

I breathe the perfume of the windblown flowers
And feel the glowing warmth of the summer sun
And think of the day I’ll be back home
Of seeing you once more!

The other night I dreamt a dream
A dream of you
I held you strongly in my arms my dearest Lill
With happy thoughts together in Windmill Hill
My mind held you darling Lill… held you captive in my heart!


Till we meet again………
Heaps of kisses for my darling Lill xxxxxx
Love Tom
p.s. Do write…

Just an illusory poem to Lill from Tom
~Annabelle