The article below shares a typical yet extraordinary story of one WWI veteran. His name was Amos Mayse, and among the many things he did in his life, it included being a Minister of God in Emerson, Manitoba. Read about his story below...
The last veterans of the First World War — friend and foe alike — have now joined their slain comrades from the Ypres Salient, Regina Trench, Vimy Ridge, Polygon Wood and Coronel and a thousand other far-flung battlefields.
And increasingly, the grey-headed ranks of the Second World War also depart to join the fading divisions that preceded them.
So Remembrance Day becomes increasingly important. It keeps us from forgetting who we are — and why.
Yet one of the things that is sometimes easy to overlook amid the stirring music, the flights of warplanes, the firing of volleys, the spit-and-polish drill and the official laying of wreaths is that among all the things that war entails, all war is always about families.
It is from families that the warriors come. It is families that bear their loss, or worse, that carry the wreckage when broken warriors return. It is families that suffer and it is in families that the most important and intimate remembrances are cherished.
So here’s one family’s war story.