How Will You Remember ? Veterans’ Week 2009

Vancouver. BC, Nov. 05, 2009
By Lt Col (Retd) Pritam Singh Jauhal

From November 5 to 11, Canadians will join together to celebrate Veterans` Week. It is a way of bringing out the very best in Canadians. The week is intended to honour the brave men and women who have always been there to defend our great country.

On Remembrance Day, the men, women and children stand many rows deep along the Streets. As soon as the Veterans start to march in parade, everyone watching begins to cheer. Spontaneously. Proudly. It truly gets right into your soul as the applause echoes high buildings around. Soon children wave Canadian Flags. Every one shouts “Thank You“. And even the most hardened in the audience are left wiping away tears.

This is why Veterans’ Week is so important. It is our chance to fully understand and appreciate the great debit we owe our nation’s truest heroes. And this is why all Canadians should think this year about how they remember these men and women - past and present - who have always been there to serve Canada, both in times of war and in times of peace.

Wearing poppies above their heart, everyone must remember to participate in some of the hundreds of Veterans’ Week events and Remembrance Day ceremonies that will be held across Canada this November. It doesn’t matter where you live - Canadians will be coming together to remember and to honour these ordinary men and women who have done extraordinary things for us.

We will remember their courage, their achievements and their sacrifice. And we will remember their families - the mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and sons and daughters who have made their own sacrifice for our way of life. For anyone who has lost a loved one in service to Canada, everyday is truly Remembrance Day.

Let us take a moment this Veterans’ Week to show our appreciation. It doesn’t matter how each of us expresses it. We just need to take the time to make sure our Veterans know they have our nations’ unending gratitude.

Lest we forget.