Today was an interesting day at the Soldier's Tower Memorial were I'm a guide, three visitors stood out amongst the 300 who visited today.
The first was an American student on a summer exchange who visted with I'm guessing his now ex-girlfriend... if I didn't know better I could have sworn it was Rudy... who spent his brief visit trying to convince the girl that none of the displays matter because Canada hadn't really fought in any wars, and the medals on display meant nothing because Canada doesn't have a real military so the medals were like boy scout badges.... the girl stormed out after I explained how Major Tilston won his VC and the guy laughed and said "nice story, who wrote it?"......
Lovely fellow I'm sure he'll win lots of friends this summer
The second visitor was an elderly woman who came with her grand-kids to show them the name of their grandfather in the memorial roll of students killed in WWII. She had driven all the way from Kentucky (were she was born and now lives) so that she could get a rubbing from the wall and find pictures of her late husband from the archives....
Finally the was the elder gentleman from Boston on vaction with his family who brought them in to show them what he did in the war (apparently he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1940)... I did enjoy the look on his grandson's face when he pointed out and identified the different artifacts and people in the paintings.. but mostly I was touched about how the man wept reading the poem "In Flanders Field".
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm
When he was going to leave he wrote a cheque for $5000 as a donation to the tower....
This Memorial Weekend (as on Rememberance Day) remember to thank those that served, pray for those that fell, and to honour those still with us.