Memories

As a child, I played with my Father's medals, army badges and dog tag without realising their significance. My Father would never talk to me about his experiences during WWII so I never knew what he'd experienced or endured.
He was a member of REME, the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and that gave him the start of his career in automotive manufacture. He had a flair for diagnosing engine faults and I remember visiting him once when I had an ominous tapping noise in an engine. I feared big ends or something equally expensive, but he listened for a few seconds and then told me a bolt was missing from the generator bracket!. We looked from underneath the engine, and he was right, so a very cheap repair rather than massive expense.
What did surprise me was hearing him talk to my daughters about his war experiences. Perhaps time had healed sad memories, but I learned about his time in France blowing up bridges as the allies withdrew, and his times in India and Burma. He was part of the forgotten army that served in Burma, and was one of the engineers who built the Kohima War Memorial.
My parents married in 1942 but were not together until the end of the war. They experienced extreme hardship during their early married life, but they were fortunate to have survived the war. They had lost many friends, and the whole experience made them appreciate their family and friends and shaped their values for the rest of their lives. No matter what happened, their priority was to ensure we were well fed and clothed.
My Father passed away a couple of months before I retired, so I didn't get the chance to spend more time with him than I was able to do while I was working and bringing up my own family. I have his dress medals and dog tag as a reminder of his service for his country, and lots of wonderful memories of family life.
I recognise and value the sacrifices made by the previous generations. I hope that future generations will, on Remembrance Sundays, continue to honour those who made such enormous sacrifices.