Every year, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, time stands still for a brief moment. We pause what we are doing, stop talking, and share a two-minute silence.
We do this to remember. We remember the brave men and women who served in the Armed Forces, those who fought in World War One, World War Two, and the many conflicts that have happened since. We remember those who returned home changed by what they saw, and we remember those who never made it back to their families at all.
At this time of year, you will see people everywhere wearing small red flowers on their coats. These are poppies. The poppy became a symbol of Remembrance because, during the terrible fighting of the First World War, the battlefields were left completely ruined, bare, and gray. Yet, amidst all the destruction, thousands of bright red poppy flowers suddenly grew out of the broken ground in Flanders, Belgium. They became a symbol of hope, life, and rebirth.
