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Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. 11am marks the signing of the Armistice that ended World War 1... the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year. I have long had mixed feeling about commemorating this event. I think that most Canadians share my approach that it reminds us of the pain and grief brought about by war, not a celebration of war itself.
This year this day has a somewhat different meaning for me. It's been just over six months since my father passed away. Yesterday my sister Anne, my mother, and I visited the gravesite. The marker stone was installed recently, and it was my first visit since the funeral. My father survived the Second World War. In addition to being young and healthy, he was also a gifted musician. I think that all those factors were critical to his survival. As a musician, he was able to entertain the officers at the POW camp, thereby getting a critical additional bit of food over the others. He survived being a "guest of Stalin" where 90% did not. Even so, he carried the reminders of his stay in the USSR with him to his grave, both physically and in memory.
After the war ended and most POWs were repatriated, my father emigrated to Canada where he met my mother. If it had not been for WW II, I would not be here. That is why I have always had mixed feelings about commemorating this day.
My father's (and now my other) website is at http://www.federer.ca.
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