Lest we forget
80 Years on from VE Day and it would seem many have no connection or memories of the impact and suffering of 2 World Wars. The sacrifice of so many of our family members, some of whom lost their lives or limbs. It was not a topic of discussion or something that we heard much about with the quiet generation, who internalized it and preferred not to talk about it. Read these three stories of women from that time. For me
My one-armed uncle, who taught me to crack eggs with one hand
Uncle Bobby, who lost his left arm in the war
My father’s occasional break from silence to share a harrowing story of barely surviving in the resistance in the occupied Netherlands
The lost relatives, some of whom died in the war
Fallen relatives
PTSD that re-surfaced in my father post-surgery, and the terrified cries and fear voiced while partially sedated in the ICU
Dad in his Marine Uniform
My father visited Alcatraz and walked into the isolation section and described this as the closest thing he had experienced since being thrown in the infamous Oranje Hotel prison by the SS when he was still a teenager
Visiting Alcatraz dad declared that the isolation cell was the closest thing he had seen to remind him of his Nazi prison time
My mother’s ongoing pride and continued service in the WRVS, and hers and a generation of people’s undying pride and admiration for Queen Elizabeth, who stepped up and volunteered as well. Leaders you want to follow
Mum was so excited to meet Queen Elizabeth when she visited her local WRVS chapter
My own brother’s service in the Falklands war that left its own set of scars, no memorialized at the Imperial War Museum in the the UK
And now
The NATO and UN peacekeeping bodies that were created to prevent the return of such atrocities are now under threat
War rages in Ukraine following military invasion by another country, with some normalizing this and apparently forgoteting or altering the history of the invasion
Annihilation and ethnic cleansing by groups that one would have thought based on their own history, would never have considered such action
🙁 Without direct experiences, memories appear to fade, leaving us open to a return to conflict, dictators, and autocrat,s and inequity that seems to be increasing
