Remembrance

Up and at 'em this morning to see the remembrance poppies at the Tower before school. A bit mad but it suddenly felt very important for the girls to see them and for me to try and help them understand the enormous price paid for all of us by our forefathers.

But it's such an abstract concept for this generation to grasp and we might just as well be talking about ancient history as a war that happened 100 years ago. So I showed them photos of their Great, Great Uncle Frank who died at Gallipoli in 1916 and when they were a bit reluctant to get out of their cosy beds at 6am this morning, I gently reminded them that they probably wouldn't have those cosy beds if it wasn't for G. G. Uncle Frank and his comrades.

It is astonishing and horrific to think that 16 million people died during WW1 alone and the sea of poppies at the Tower helped the girls make some sense of those vast numbers. Now they'd like me to buy Frank's poppy to give to their Grandad in memory of his uncle.

It was a humbling and important little visit and I'm very glad we went. Lest we forget.