Thank you, JessM, for your post of yesterday at 10.39 about "glorifying being killed in a war". You have a gift for saying what I am thinking but am unable to put nearly as clearly as you can!
While I am happy, and indeed proud, to wear a poppy, I am too young (born in 1951) to remember anyone who died in a world war. What I do remember is the fact that my father fought in the Far East and saw things that he could never tell us about when we were little, but could start to tell his DGC about. He had nightmares regularly well after I was born. I remember bomb sites when I was growing up and thinking about the suffering that they represented. I remember my father's talking about the school teachers he had at who had one leg, or one arm, or unpredictable behaviour. I remember the school teachers I had who had never had the opportunity to marry, as there were no men available, and so spent their lives in using their considerable brain power to teach, rather than, as would then have been the case, staying at home. Good for their pupils of course, but they might have preferred to have a choice.
I also regret that i never met my paternal grandmother who had a husband away in WWI and two sons away in WWII. Although they all came back relatively unharmed, the worry must have taken its toll on her, and she died in 1948.
It seems to me to be quite disgraceful that, after all we have learned about the effect of conflict on survivors, that we have to expect charities to look after them and their families even now. The Royal British Legion does good work, but it should be part of the MoD remit and budget to do it, I think.
