To the editor,
I would like to commend the citizens of Teeswater-Culross who took it upon themselves to recognize our wartime fallen at the Teeswater cenotaph on Nov. 11, 2021.
Thank you to the merchants who decorated their store windows in remembrance, and to the couple who arrived before 11 a.m. to clear away leaves from the sidewalk by the cenotaph. A very special thank you to the bugler, the bagpiper and the school girl who recited In Flanders Fields.
Families of Teeswater-Culross feel the impact and mourn the loss of their wartime fallen as deeply as citizens in communities where Remembrance Day ceremonies are televised or live streamed. That was evident on Nov. 11 as those gathered sang O Canada enthusiastically and placed their poppies on the wreaths afterwards.
During the past year, the refusal of Donald Trump to accept democratic election results and the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. show us just how fragile democracy is.
Freedom is not free. The sacrifice of those who gave their lives merits proper recognition. I am proud of, and grateful to, the Teeswater-Culross citizens who gathered of their own accord at their cenotaph on Remembrance Day.
Phyllis Bannerman
Caledonia
