November 11

[Recon1342]

We stand on the shoulders of giants…

[stickman]

My granddad went through the whole war and made it home. He smoked himself to death. When I was young I couldn't understand why. No one in those days had ever heard of PTSD. He died of lung cancer in his fifties or early sixties.

[Ninehostages]

I had an unusual experience when I was in Cubs. Our leader played the accordion and he arranged for us to go to the local Veterans hospital (Ste Anne de Bellevue) and sing Christmas carols to the Veterans. This was about 1965-6 and we had a room full of WWI veterans in front of us who had spent almost their entire adult lives in that hospital. A lot of them were horribly disfigured. I remember one poor chap with a good portion of his head missing. The tears streamed down their faces as we sang to them. I guess that we were there children that they never able to have. It is one of the saddest things that I have experienced.

(I'm not sure who thought that was a good idea to expose ten year olds to that but it was a life lesson, for sure).