But I Smile Anyway…

Today is Remembrance Sunday.  It is a day we reflect, and remember those souls who have given their lives for the safety of the country. On this day, and on 11th November, which is actually Remembrance Day, people wear poppies with pride, a symbol that has come from way back in the First World War.  In Belgium, in Flanders, there was possibly some of the bloodiest fighting, and lives lost. The area was razed to the ground, and the fields left as muddy messes… the only thing that survived, and continued to flower, year after year, were the poppies… these brought colour hope and reassurance to those still fighting.

So we wear these, to remember those who fought and gave their lives in order for us to be here today, living in the free country that we are.

We have a Remembrance march here on Remembrance Sunday, locally, where veterans, both old and young, and the Territorial Army, and Cadets do a Remembrance parade around the town. And on 11th November at “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” we hold a 2 minute silence to remember these souls.  Remembrance Day coincides with Armistice Day, when the hostilities of the Western Front finally ceased in 1918, at 11am on the 11th November.

I always wear a poppy with pride, and I also wear the special poppy, shown in the photo above, the Khanda Poppy, to specifically remember the Sikh soldiers who were drafted in during the World Wars, and who fought with equal pride, for the British Empire.

“Lest we forget.”