A Day to Remember

Ladies and gentlemen,

Lest we forget.

Today is a day to remember, remember what so many have sacrificed to ensure we could enjoy the ultimate comfort, our freedom.

I am not going to prattle on about my experiences and relations with war or the veterans that fought in them. I am not because we as a generation have no understanding of war. We have no understanding of true hardship and absolute sacrifice. We have only the stories our veterans relay, the knowledge that humans are capable of horrible things.

We are not victims. We are not, because they protected us.

So today, please wear your poppy with pride. Please remember that today has nothing to do with us, but it has everything to do with passing on the invaluable message of our aging generation. Today is about their message and having the ability to tell it.

Lest we forget.

Yours,

L

Dead, But HOW Dead?

I saw a dead guy the other day. I've been thinking about him (or her, let's be fair) ever since.

I was out walking the Beast when he decided to have the mother of all shits; it was a double bagger. As I looked up, I caught sight of a shiny black Suburban pull into the funeral home across the road.

Two people got out and opened the back doors. Assuming they were dropping the casket off I paused for a second; it seemed like the right thing to do.

What followed was not a casket but a bona fed body. It was on a stretcher in a black body bag, complete with feet poking up like circus tents. The body seemed to be a long one (aka, he took up the full stretcher) so I'm assuming this was a man. Either way, it was a thin body.

For those of you who think I'm completely nuts, let me justify my fascination with advising you that my university studies revolved around dead bodies. Skeletons, forensics and human behaviour were my subjects of choice (maybe a little English was thrown in).

It was such an odd sight, this body fresh from the hospital. I certainly wasn't expecting anything other than a pine box (possibly mahogany, considering the neighbourhood). I've seen lots of bodies, fresh and foul, during my own employment at a funeral home. Thing is, I always knew the story behind them.

I don't know this body's story. Where did they come from? Why did they die?

Tonight I was walking the pooch again and saw a crowd milling around the same funeral home - likely the family and friends of the deceased.

I didn't stick around but I still wonder, what is the story?

Debating the dead,

L