Over the last few months, we’ve applauded the NHS and Key workers, remembered those who have been affected by the Covid 19 virus and those who have lost their lives, yet I am reminded that the cost of what has happened over the last ten months of this year run far, far deeper. My brother in law was one such casualty, the company he worked for collapsed during the period of lock down and he was made redundant, with time on his hands and recognising that Remembrance Day 2020 would look very different to the way it has for many years, he set about making his own tribute to those whose lives were changed for ever because of the world wars and he made this light box to sit in the window of their house to remind passers-by of the importance of this event in our country’s history.
I have heard comparisons to the war being made repeatedly over the last few months and I guess that for those who lived through the experience of the two world wars, there is very little comparison. For most of us over the last ten months, this has been about little more than inconvenience, whereas during the time of the blitz people lived in constant fear, they lost their homes, their livelihoods, their neighbourhoods and their loved ones. Those who died fighting for their country and for the many generations who followed, will always be heroes and as we mark the two minutes of silence today in our own homes, we need to remember the sacrifice they made for each of us. So please, stop, remember, and give thanks today.
Let us not forget either the much higher number of people whose lives were changed forever because of the war years, those who didn’t lose their lives, but were forced to live with the memories, the physical and mental scars of that dreadful experience, lasting for a who six years. I hope that what we are experiencing at the moment will be for a season and we will be able to say in years to come “do you remember when” in the way my own parents shared their wartime experiences with my brother and I when we were children.
Maybe the biggest difference between the war and our Covid experience comes down to cost. Back in the day, men and women worked for the war effort, often putting their own lives in peril for the sake of others. For us today, we are forced to stay inside, to wear masks (which let’s face it none of us find comfortable) to keep our distance and maybe forego some important days in our calendar. This isn’t easy, and will feel to be intolerable for many but it is necessary, as we remember those who died to keep us safe, let us do our best to follow the rules, so that those around us might be helped to safe today!
On Remembrance Day, let us not forget.