Hi there my wife Jane who passed away last November would have been commemorating todays 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings and in particular the brave young men and women who lost their lives in the 2nd world war conflicts,to day I would like to pay my respects to those people who died and to their partners,wives,husbands children who were feeling like I do now with the loss of a loved one.
One of our favourite poems from the film carve her name with pride(Virginia Mkenna) based on the true story of a brave young French resistance fighter Violette Szabo 26 who was tortured and executed by the Nazis for this poem used as a wartime code written by a man Leo Marks and I quote:
The life that I have is all that I have and the life that that I have is yours
The love that I have of the life that I have is yours and yours and yours
A sleep I shall have a rest I shall have yet death will be but a pause for the peace of my years in the long green grass will be yours and yours and yours.
I am sure it as been quoted on this site before but today I use it to pay respects and salute those brave people who died and mourned in the conflicts as would my dear wife Jane had she been here
My goodness MM. Yes, I do remember that poem now, and oh how suitable for what we are going through. The words bring me almost to tears. ‘Death will be but a pause’. I like that so much because it’s how I feel. A pause, oh yes!! A brief moment in this seemingly endless pain. A pause to think and see our grief as it is at the moment, and to know that even though we will never forget, the pain will ease. The men and women that gave their lives on those fateful days will never be forgotten. Somewhere in someone’s heart they will always be.
The requiem for the fallen is very apt to what we are going through, but we have come to take losses in battles and wars for granted, as if it will always be.
“They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
we shall remember them”.
I believe there is no ‘age’ in eternity. Our brief moment on this earth is but as a grain of sand on the seashore. But every grain contains a unique Spirit that rises above earthly thoughts. Eternity has no time limit or size or limitations. What has been will be again. We will all know that so precious love again, but in a peaceful place. Blessings.
My late father ( been gone now 31 years, I was only 37 ) fought on the front-lines against both Germans and the Japanese during WW2…he was a paratrooper and based in Northern Africa and Italy…He was one of the lucky ones, he came back…
The poem is perfect MM69 and really rather beautiful. Thank you for reminding us of it. How touching that you can take time out from your own grieving to remember those who gave their lives for us. Thank you MM, you’re a special man. Xx
How lovely to see those words, that is also one of my favourite poems, one I often read. Thank you for mentioning it on this very special day . Love to you and thanks.
L
My father was wounded in Normandy in June 1944 and his life was never the same.He died at age of 64 of a heart attack. I now know what my mother felt as my partner died at 66 in January 2019.
Haven’t been on here for a few days and just seen your lovely post and poem MetalMickey. Have been thinking about my Mum and 75 years ago a lot this week. Mum stood on the Isle of Wight and watched the boats going over the channel for D Day. Everyone was given a bar of chocolate and a letter from General Eisenhower. Mum ate the chocolate and kept the wrapper, we have it in the photograph album she kept from the war years. Sadly a relative saw fit to remove the letter for their own collection of memorabilia which upset Mum greatly. They have never returned it not that it matters now.