Today is the 100th Anniversary of the start of the Battle at Vimy Ridge. There has been extensive coverage of the historical events and the memorial services. Our thoughts are with them and we’re incredibly grateful for past and present members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

I’ve been particularly touched by the personal acts of remembrance. Bruce Hearn and a reservist, who we met while working on Safehouse, attended the ceremony at Vimy, France today. Bruce brought with him a cross to remember the 48th Highlanders. He left the cross a Ypres, where the Highlanders suffered from the first poison gas attack of the war. The reservist, who we met while working on Safehouse, always carries a coin of remembrance in his pocket to honour a fallen soldier (standard practice among military). The soldier on his coin died at Vimy, so it is fitting that the coin travelled with him to France.

One reporter asked a WWII veteran who attended the memorial service at Vimy what he was thinking, and the reply was, “I’d rather not say.” Many of us wouldn’t. A more eloquent explanation comes from Captain Way Wiss, M.D. in an excerpt from his book, “FOB Doc: A Doctor on the Front Lines in Afghanistan: A War Diary,” by

For me, Remembrance Day has always been very emotional. I feel a tremendous debt of gratitude towards our veterans and a tremendous sadness for our losses. As I mentioned earlier, I had gone to Normandy for the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day. I realized that this was one of the last chances we would have to see a large group of veterans all together. My goal was to shake hands with as many of them as possible and to say, “Thank you for getting out of that boat.” That was all I wanted to say, but never managed it. In an entire week with over one hundred hand-shakes, I never got all the words out. I would choke up halfway through. (p. 127)