Today is Veteran's Day and with that comes an immediate memory of all the poppy wreaths that will be placed at headstones and memorial structures throughout the UK.
When Juaquin and I married in 1984 he had enlisted in the U.S. Air Force 6 months prior. We looked forward to starting our lives together and hoped to be stationed somewhere in Texas. That was not to be the case. We began our marriage in England, UK.
Memories abound from the years we lived there, but on this day, November 11th, the thought of red paper poppies gathered together to make wreaths is symbolic of this day of remembrance and not easily forgotten.
Just like we see the Salvation Army bell ringers settle outside stores as we inch into the holiday season, men and women in English villages will start offering individual paper poppies to people passing by in exchange for bit of change as early as October. There is quite an interesting history behind the remembrance poppy that is traced back to World War I.
Remembering may not always be a pleasant experience, but (I believe) it is something worth doing.
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