To the fallen heroes ...

There are simply no words that can adequately express what I feel today ... The poet John Donne once wrote - "no man is an island ..." he went on to note that none of us exist in isolation, we are all part of the whole. When one suffers, we all suffer. When one dies, we all grieve.

Today in Manitoba, this interconnectedness is showing itself to be true.

When one in uniform falls, I find myself grieving, even if I've never met the person, and have no connection with their family. I know the unending ache that accompanies the death of a parent in the line of duty. An ache that has accompanied me for the entirety of my life. An ache that is untempered by the passage of time.

That ache reminds me of the grief felt by the families of police officer, fire fighters, soldiers, or any one else who wears a uniform in their service to our country, and its people.

In Winnipeg today, they buried Captain Harold Lessard. On Monday they will bury Captain Thomas Nichols. In the coming days their family will journey a path well known to many of us. It is a path of loss and grief, and an unrelenting ache of having been forced to say farwell far too soon.

The two firefighters died as heroes. Their comrades who escaped injured are heroes. Those who willingly put on the uniform and place thier lives at risk every day in the service of their community and our country, are heroes. Sometimes we focus too much on the less than heroic actions that may occur, but in a moment like this, we are reminded that today there are two new named to be carved on a stone monument in Remembrance.

Their day started like many others ... it ended in tragedy ...

Today I can't help but think how lucky we were as a community a little over a year ago when the Fire Siren sounded and our volunteer fire department responded to the call of "Church Fire".

The building was a complete loss. You can rebuild a building. We could have had our fire fighters injured or killed ... and in a moment like this, we are reminded that those fire fighters are someone's child, someone's sibling, someone's spouse, someone's parent and someone's friend ... today in Minnedosa at my childrens' school we are mindful that one of the fallen in Winnipeg is the brother of one of our teachers ...

This week the tragedy of Lessard and Nichols death moved beyond just words in print ... the tears are real ...

May God Bless all Fire Fighters, and all those in Uniform, and may we remember to appreciate the risk they take on in their jobs ... and May they be safe tonight in their duties ... and May they go home safe when their shift ends ...

Tonight my thoughts and prayers are with the Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, and elsewhere ... Thanks.