Percy James Robicheau. Rank: Lance Corporal. Service number: F8850. North Shore Regiment. Killed in action April 5th, 1945.
This is the way we are taught about war. Unbelievable isn’t it, how organized, how neat it looks when clearly printed and filed away? Certain dates must be memorized. Names of battles are recalled according to their importance to the bigger picture. Occasionally, we’ll hear the stories of the brave men and women who valiantly gave up their lives for peace, but that’s all they are: stories of faceless entities, nameless heroes, the things of legend. They could be works of fiction for all we know, and frankly I wouldn’t be surprised, for their feats seem out of the ordinary, almost out of this world. To have seen such horrors for the sake of a better tomorrow, a tomorrow they were not even guaranteed to see, I can’t possibly imagine. Every soldier around the world, whether resting in peace or off fighting for the rights of others, possesses a courage that is foreign to me. But while reading about their noble …show more content…
Mrs. Martha Robicheau, who was left a widow at 23 years old after but 5 years of marriage, one of which you were not even able to spend together. Is she not more deserving of this opportunity? Or perhaps your son Larry, what words would he use to recall your memory and bid you farewell? Born only 4 months before you passed away, he never did get to meet you. What a reminder that the world is a cruel place.
Not even a hundred years have passed and already we’re able to look at nothing but the cold hard facts. But some cannot afford to be this distant to the horrors of war. For these people, certain dates need not be memorized because they have already been permanently etched on to their heart, when so many years ago, a telegram arrived out of the blue and delivered the terrible news in the most impersonal of ways. How did it go?
To: Mrs. Martha M Robicheau, Argyle Street, Yarmouth South N S. Dated April 10th
This is the way we are taught about war. Unbelievable isn’t it, how organized, how neat it looks when clearly printed and filed away? Certain dates must be memorized. Names of battles are recalled according to their importance to the bigger picture. Occasionally, we’ll hear the stories of the brave men and women who valiantly gave up their lives for peace, but that’s all they are: stories of faceless entities, nameless heroes, the things of legend. They could be works of fiction for all we know, and frankly I wouldn’t be surprised, for their feats seem out of the ordinary, almost out of this world. To have seen such horrors for the sake of a better tomorrow, a tomorrow they were not even guaranteed to see, I can’t possibly imagine. Every soldier around the world, whether resting in peace or off fighting for the rights of others, possesses a courage that is foreign to me. But while reading about their noble …show more content…
Mrs. Martha Robicheau, who was left a widow at 23 years old after but 5 years of marriage, one of which you were not even able to spend together. Is she not more deserving of this opportunity? Or perhaps your son Larry, what words would he use to recall your memory and bid you farewell? Born only 4 months before you passed away, he never did get to meet you. What a reminder that the world is a cruel place.
Not even a hundred years have passed and already we’re able to look at nothing but the cold hard facts. But some cannot afford to be this distant to the horrors of war. For these people, certain dates need not be memorized because they have already been permanently etched on to their heart, when so many years ago, a telegram arrived out of the blue and delivered the terrible news in the most impersonal of ways. How did it go?
To: Mrs. Martha M Robicheau, Argyle Street, Yarmouth South N S. Dated April 10th