We will remember them.
I am alive today because my great-grandfather was too stubborn to die.
He was with a Scottish regiment, and my dad told me that they were called 'the ladies from hell' by the enemy troops. They wore kilts.
He fought in the battle of the Somme, and he was shot twice, in the shoulder, and in the stomach.
He traded his whiskey ration to an enemy soldier for the soldier's water ration. The soldier was dying, and my great-grandfather hoped that the whiskey would give him a bit of relief from his injuries before he succumbed. My grandfather couldn't drink the water, because it had somehow been tainted with petrol. Not drinking the water saved his life.
I don't know how long it was before he was found on that battlefield. More than hours. Possibly days. I don't know how he survived, but he did. He survived that battle, lived out the war. He married, moved to Canada. He had four sons, including my grandfather, who then had my father. My father had my sister and I, and I still bear my great-grandfather's last name. So do my children.
I never met him. He died long before I was born. But I will remember him. Always.
He was with a Scottish regiment, and my dad told me that they were called 'the ladies from hell' by the enemy troops. They wore kilts.
He fought in the battle of the Somme, and he was shot twice, in the shoulder, and in the stomach.
He traded his whiskey ration to an enemy soldier for the soldier's water ration. The soldier was dying, and my great-grandfather hoped that the whiskey would give him a bit of relief from his injuries before he succumbed. My grandfather couldn't drink the water, because it had somehow been tainted with petrol. Not drinking the water saved his life.
I don't know how long it was before he was found on that battlefield. More than hours. Possibly days. I don't know how he survived, but he did. He survived that battle, lived out the war. He married, moved to Canada. He had four sons, including my grandfather, who then had my father. My father had my sister and I, and I still bear my great-grandfather's last name. So do my children.
I never met him. He died long before I was born. But I will remember him. Always.