Today in Ottawa they gathered to add four more names to the Memorial to Fallen Police and Peace Officers in Canada ... among the crowd gathered was the young man pictured above - 2 1/2 yr old Nolan Russell, whose father died in the last year serving this country.
I have tried each fall to remember and acknowledge this National Day by beginning our worship services with a prayer for the fallen, and an act of Remembrance ... this year I just plain forgot ... But given the events and happenings over the last few months I think its understandable, and really not a big deal.
Fortunately though, in Ottawa, behind the Parliament Buildings, over looking the river, there was a crowd of people who gathered and who didn't forget. They didn't forget the seven hundred men and women who are acknowledged on the memorial, and regrettably, they added four more names to the Honour Roll.
Today, despite my liturgical oversight, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the fallen, and to the little people like young Nolan, who is on a journey I know only too well ... He will know his father through the stories and memories who take time to remember Sgt Russell. There is much he will miss, but today he will know and will be reminded over and over that his father, and others like mine, died as Heroes in Life not death, and that together we are family bound together by a ribbon of acknowledgement, memory and care.
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