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| Photo by Makala Doughty |
This Remembrance Sunday, the kids once again did us proud representing our family. Danny marched with Sea Scouts and laid a wreath on behalf of them. Rebecca and Caitlyn both marched with Brownie Guides (Caitlyn has just moved up from Rainbows.) Cousin Cerys marched with Brownie Guides too and Uncle Gary marched and laid a wreath on behalf of the Special Constabulary in Dyfed Powys.
It was such a windy and rainy day, but of course that did not put people off coming out to show their respects and remember the fallen. We know that those fighting these wars had (and have) to go on in far worse conditions whatever the weather, so no one complains. This is nothing compared to what they have endured.
Every year the familiar words are so touching.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
A selection of verses from “For the Fallen” by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
As we sang ,”Oh hear us when we cry to thee, for those who peril on the sea.” I could not help but look out to our own grey, cold, rough seas and try my best to imagine what it was like.
For the service men and women who have died in the violence of war,
each one remembered
for those who love them in death as in life,
offering the distress of our grief and the sadness of our loss;
for all members of the armed forces who are in danger this day,
remembering family, friends and all who pray for their safe return;
for civilian women, children and men whose lives are disfigured by war or terror,
calling to mind in penitence the anger and hatreds of humanity;
for peace-makers and peace-keepers,
who seek to keep this world secure and free;
for all who bear the burden and privilege of leadership,
political, military and religious;
asking for gifts of wisdom and resolve in the search for
reconciliation and peace.
We hope for Peace.
(an adapted version of A Litany of Peace)
If we are to maintain our peace and freedom, we must always remember.
We will remember them.
