A Hometown Honours and Remembers

A little over a week ago yellow ribbons started popping up all over town. Driving past the elementary school the day after Halloween I figured someone had decided to prank the town with a prettier version of toilet paper. Every fence post on the block plus of chain link fence had a lovely yellow ribbon tied to the top of it and was fluttering in the afternoon breeze. For a prank it was a pretty nice one.

I continued through town, wondering. Ribbons on streetlights. Ribbons on trees. Ribbons on sign posts. Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons. Random ribbons. Rows of ribbons. But yellow ribbons everywhere.

Then my daughter came home from school with a ribbon. A Canadian soldier who had grown up here and gone to her school had passed away in Afghanistan. (That’s a nice way of saying he was killed in the war.) At that point, only days after his death, the city had been covered with 1000 ribbons. Since then many more have popped up to join the first 1000, several of them with small Canadian flags tucked under the ribbon. The amazing part is that I have never seen anyone place one of these ribbons other than my daughter who with great thought and care tied one on the tree in our front yard.

This man has been honoured over a thousand times over in our city and stepping outside or even looking outside one’s window brings his sacrifice to mind. Today, we remember all soldiers and particularly those who were unable to attain the status “veteran.”

How will you remember and honour those lives?