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Me and My Silent Solider

November 07, 2019

Me and My Silent Solider

Today is Rememberance Sunday.

My parents were both kids in the war so were lucky enough not to be active participants.

That's not to say it didn't touch them.  My Mum was a London girl who was bombed out and evacuated to her Aunt May's in Norfolk.  Mum was lucky that she could go to a relative as opposed to just being lumped out those who had to take unknown children into their countryside homes.  My Dad, from Sunderland, didn't talk about his wartime experiences and I assume that he didn't have the bombing experience of my Mum.  I could be wrong, I just don't know.

It was a different time.  Last year, Freddie Bentley, 22, a reality TV star suggested that learning about the 85 million deaths in the World Wars "is harmful to a millennial’s mental health" in other words it's too horrid for them to even contemplate, it upsets them.  Now, I don't suggest that this is the opinion of all millennials by any means, but frankly, it's too horrid for all of us to think about and that's the point of Remembrance Sunday,  that we look the appalling loss in the face once a year, every year - lest we forget.

Two years ago was the 100th anniversary of the start of World War Two and I'm sure you saw the silhouettes of soliders, nurses, airman and naval crew around your local area.  At the same time, the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation also sold domestic "Silent Soliders", clear perspex versions, around 18 inches high,  for your table top.

My Tommy lives in his box and comes out around the end of October to join us in the kitchen for a couple of weeks.  Quite often, he's really hard to see, if he catches the light right he can also looked mirrored, it all depends on the time of day.  In other words, he's like our thoughts for the civilians and service men and women who gave their lives for our safety - there always, but not there any more.

 

 




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