Last spring the father of friends of ours died. It wasn't unexpected; he was almost one hundred and his health had been failing. In his obituary, which he had helped to draft, it described how as a young man he had served in the Canadian navy, and had survived cold, gruelling, dangerous corvette duty in the North Atlantic. It went on to declare that he felt that having earned him a place at Toronto's Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital and residence in his last years had made all that worthwhile.
A lot of those veterans remained pretty selfless.
And good to know that for all we hear of veterans forgotten and neglected, some at least do get the care and attention they deserve. Sunnybrook has planted 30,000 flags on its lawns for Remembrance Day: some the standard maple leaf, some based on an indigenous design.
You can donate to the Sunnybrook Foundation's Raise a Flag campaign here.
