Today is Remembrance Day in Canada (Veteran’s Day in the US) and down at the RCMP building, they held a ceremony to remember the men and women who served in Canada’s military. One of my great uncles went MIA, another died of complications to his wounds, my grandfather served at Normandy on D-Day, another grandfather was in the Army stateside, and my husband’s father served in the Battle of the Bulge with General Patton – all in World War II. We went to listen, to remember, and to lay our poppies down with the others afterwards.

As people brought the wreathes forward, a man read aloud who they were dedicated to and why. One man brought a wreathe in remembrance of the survivors of the Atlantic, a ship hit by four German torpedoes. The ship sunk in two minutes and only twenty-one survivors managed to get into a lifeboat. After eight days, they were out of food and water. On the seventeenth day, the remaining nine survivors were rescued. The man laying down the wreathe was one of those nine.

Nine.

We remember.