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Thank you Jen. I always get bleary-eyed on Remembrance Day and you brought tears early this morning. I have never experienced war first hand but like many baby boomers, I was touched by the experiences of my parents, my grandparents and others. Grandparents who lost a son in WW 2 and would rarely ever speak about him, a father who was in the pay corps usually travelling with the Red Cross who saw a different side of the war and a father-in-law who who experienced the Russian invasion of his homeland after WW2 and remained angered by the senseless, to him, death of his brother. You have highlighted the social impacts on Canadians of WW1. WW1 truly did change the fabric of Europe and Canada. I hope that teachers share your article, and not just today. It really demonstrates how grateful we should be to be Canadian and how thankful we should be to the men and women who saw it as their duty to stand up for what they believed in. I wonder if we still have Charlie Reeds, who although wounded, delivered his message. You delivered it for him 100 years later. Thank you.

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We’re so grateful for your family’s service. I often wonder as well what the response would be today. Although things have changed greatly, when called to put country above self, would we? I believe we have many strong and brave folks who would go the extra mile and it’s hard to know what humans are capable of when pushed to extreme circumstances. The horror of what they faced always gives me pause though. This was a generation which grew up entirely different from us - they saw the invention of so many new things and their lives were notably harder than ours. They endured two wars, a pandemic and a major depression that came with drought and much despair of its own. My grandma was born into that time and she lived in a tent for a year outside Timmons when Charlie worked up north and built them a cabin. While we face different challenges we have to manage thru, I have to think that at least physically, the great generation was tougher than my generation. Thank you for reading and sharing.

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