I have no memory of a world at war, of days and nights laced with fear or of lives lost. I have no visions of the faces of young men and women finding courage beyond my imagination. I have no memory of rationing or shortages or sacrifice. And I’m thankful for that – the death, the sacrifice and loss happened years before I was born. But I do remember a lifetime of Remembrance Days. I remember my parent’s faces as they remembered and reflected on a not too distant past. I remember watching them feel the sting of loss renewed. I remember remembering.
Of course life carried on after those wars ended, after the survivors came home, it was supposed to – that’s what the sacrifice was for. That’s what those brave young men and women fought for; our privilege, our freedom, our normal. They fought so we would be safe, that we would have rights. They fought for me, my children and my grandchildren – they fought for the generations to come.
Remembering that which we have no memory of is something of a challenge. I will never feel the emotion that shadowed my parent’s faces on the Remembrance Days of my youth. I will never feel their sense of loss. I won’t because they sacrificed so I wouldn’t. My children are even further removed from the reality my parents faced. And my grandchildren are part of those future generations who are reaping the benefits of my parent’s sacrifice. My grandchildren will have to remember without ever having met anyone who actually lived what they are now charged with remembering.
I went to a Remembrance Day assembly at my granddaughters elementary school this week. Young voices sang Oh Canada as only children can sing and I swallowed a lump in my throat. We are the true north strong and free because of what we were gathered to remember. The children participating in the ceremony were going through the motions of remembrance as they sang the songs and recited the poems – they were learning how to remember.
We are charged with remembering that which we never had to live. On this Remembrance Day I will only remember remembering but I will remember, and so too will my grandchildren.