Remembrance Day

We've been going to the Remembrance Day ceremony in St. Albert for many years now. 

I always get a lump in my throat when the bagpipes start and I hear, 'Scotland the Brave.'

I think of my two grandfathers in WW1. Grandfather Helliwell was badly injured in the trenches,  just before Armistice Day and he came back to England to face a life of coping with ill health. He suffered from epilepsy and depression and towards the end of his life had to have both legs amputated because of damage from the shrapnel that remained in his body.

I also think about my uncle, Robert Rogers who along with many other men was killed by a German submarine during WW2. And also, my dad, Derek Rogers, who was too young to enlist but did, and thankfully survived the war. 

Written by William Gibson, 1878 -1962

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They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn't I,
But someone just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands...
Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name.