I found this photograph a long time ago, on a website relating to the Great War. I don't know the soldier who is buried beneath this headstone. I don't know his wife. I don't know his daughter.
I don't know the battle or the place where he died. Or the time. Or the circumstances of his death.
But although I know none of those details, the pain, the loss, the suffering is overwhelming. A photograph left by a family, at the place where a father and a husband lies, left by the people who loved him most. Looking at the photograph, as a father, and as a husband, it's impossible to understand what that single death, that sacrifice, must have meant to that family.
One death, among so many deaths, across so many wars.
We will never forget the sacrifice, the suffering and the unbearable sadness. We will always remember.
"Silent Nod"
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter went to the Ypres cemetery with the school a few years ago and she described it as one of the most moving experiences of her young life. She will remember.
ReplyDeleteReally moving scene. Being Spanish, I can tell you all that we have gone through a different experience of war (a terrible civil war in the late 30s) that still today taints the way our civil society see war conflicts and the military profession. No remembrance day here, little emotional attachment to the fallen, even for those few thousands Spanish soldiers today patrolling in far away countries. I must admitt my admiration to your annual collective remembrance effort. Lest we forget
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteWell put, sir.
ReplyDeleteBWW
Very much so.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Amen, friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteWe will always remember
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