So Proud of Heather...

[theMusicMan]

Just to say that at the moment, Heather is in Belgium on a school trip until Sunday night, traveling to Amsterdam tomorrow.

However, today she has been to the various war cemeteries, trenches etc and she has called me several times saying she loved it.

Check this... this evening the school children were all invited to the Menin Gate Last Post ceremony and guess what... Heather was invited to lay a wreath for the 50,000 unfound soldiers - at the Menin Gate, in front of hundreds of people.

She called me just moments after she was asked to do it, very nervous. She has since text me saying a friend captured it on video on her iPhone.

So proud, so very proud.

[Chevvyf1]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

Just to say that at the moment, Heather is in Belgium on a school trip until Sunday night, traveling to Amsterdam tomorrow.

However, today she has been to the various war cemeteries, trenches etc and she has called me several times saying she loved it.

Check this... this evening the school children were all invited to the Menin Gate Last Post ceremony and guess what... Heather was invited to lay a wreath for the 50,000 unfound soldiers - at the Menin Gate, in front of hundreds of people.

She called me just moments after she was asked to do it, very nervous. She has since text me saying a friend captured it on video on her iPhone.

So proud, so very proud.

and so you should be ! looking forward to photos/video

[StephenL]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

It's great that she appreciates the enormity of the war. You must have done something right when bringing her up!

[theMusicMan]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

Thanks Stephen, that's a nice thing to say. Thank you.

I must admit, after arriving late last night and not liking the 'hostel' - bed bug alley she called it... Heather has called me several times and text me a dozen times today - and it is so evident that she is loving it there in Ypres. She is really taken in by it all. She said she had a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes at the several cemeteries she visited today, at the trenches she said it was eerie.

But the call I received from her just moments after she was asked to lay the wreath, well... she was so proud of herself and I can tell she wanted to tell Dad as she knew I'd be proud.

What a day for her this has been... she has mentioned to me many times that she would love to visit Auschwitz too. She loves her History.

[kidslateinlife]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

I recall an earlier post you made written by Heather which was very moving and insightful. Every right to feel proud.

[sponner]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

We were in Normandy a few years ago and the sprogs suggested that the war cemetries (the small Brit ones for emotion and the huge US one for impact) should be on the national curriculum.

Kind of made sense.

[Janet]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

I also recall a rather moving post with a story Heather had written, but I simply can't find it now! Have you removed it John, or am I getting confused?

You are quite right to feel proud of your daughter. She sounds like a fine young girl.

I look forward to seeing the photos!

Janet

[BobS]

Re: So Proud of Heather...

I don't know whether you know but, near Noyelles-sur-Mer which is not far from St Valery sur Somme in Picardy, there is a Chinese WW11 cemetery.

Noyelles-Sur-Mer was the base depot of the Chinese Labour Corps in France, the site of their largest camp and of No 3 Labour (originally the Chinese) General Hospital. The Chinese Labour Corps was the outcome of an agreement made between the United Kingdom and Chinese Governments on 30 December 1916, for the employment of Chinese labour in France. The men were recruited in north China and the first contingent arrived in France in April 1917. By the end of 1917, 54,000 were in France and Belgium. At the Armistice the Corps numbered nearly 96,000 and even in May 1919, 80,000 were at work. Nearly 2,000 died during the war and when the cemeteries were constructed after the war was over, the headstones for these men were engraved in Chinese characters by a selected group of their comrades. The cemetery also contains the Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial, commemorating 41 men of the Corps who died on land or at sea and whose graves are not known.

We were amazed when we came across this as we had no idea that they were involved. They were obviously the "fetchers and carriers" and going by the dates of death on the gravestones, 1919, 1920 etc., many must have died from their war wounds well after the war ended.