Poppy U Lar

Take away the veneer of glory. War hunts in horror. On November the 11th , 2009, Canadian Remembrance Day comes again. In this year, 95 years after the outbreak of the First World War, the Royal Canadian Legion's Poppy campaign continues. The campaign contains important values in a simple symbol. Remember them.

More than a symbol, I first wore the poppy as a Cub Scout at a ceremony on the dirt floor of a town hockey arena. Artificial ice didn't exist. The whole town seemed to be inside that place, at that ceremony. Many of the surviving veterans, militia, cadets, police, and volunteer firemen assembled there. The only exceptions, those who were on shift in the local pulp mill.

Sorrow swam in everyone's eyes. While poppies for me represented all those who gave their lives, in the eyes of the war veterans the poppies also meant individuals, buddies, and friends. It meant that they were physically free from the horrors haunting. It symbolized neither victory nor defeat, political leanings, racial bias or shopping. A poppy represents soul to soul far beyond the clutches of time.

Over the years, I witnessed the Legion Poppy ceremony many times on Remembrance Day and at individual funerals. One individual ceremony given to my father contained that Poppy Ceremony. Of the whole funeral, that is the only scene that sticks in memory. A lot of people liked and respected old Ziggy. I knew this. But the poppies were special for they were from his companions, co-workers, and men of his generation who shared a necessary horror.

The Poppy Ceremony is extremely simple. Friends and colleagues wear a poppy to the funeral. At a certain point they line up and one by one they approach the coffin and places his/her poppy into a special pillow. The last member places their poppy, picks up the pillow and presents the poppy filled pillow to surviving family members.

And through two decades after my father's passing on, each funeral used fewer and fewer poppies. In the early part of this century, there was only about three poppies in the pillow to be presented to the widow. This thought also occurred to surviving Legion Members. One can tell.

As one ages in Canada, that poppy so cheap to buy, so easy to wear, haunts in wealth. Now like those survivors I stand with memories of those people, friends and other souls lost to duty. Of course those souls are not only soldiers involved in the Afghanistan conflict, but police, firemen and volunteer heroes who gave their lives to make Canada and the world just a little better place.