Bevrijdingsdag

Blipping today as a tribute to my grandfather. Today is Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day) in the Netherlands, celebrating the country's liberation towards the end of WW2. My Opa (granddad) was a career soldier and spent most of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies, where as an officer in the Engineers he had mostly been building road bridges and training engineers. Before he was captured, his last stand (attempting to give his unit time to escape) earned him a gallantry medal. The whole family was interned, in various camps and in terrible conditions, but somehow (unlike many others) the they all survived and were repatriated after the war, to a liberated but devastated Holland. This is a detail of his ceremonial sword (a replacement, as unfortunately the original one which he wore in his wedding photographs in 1923 was lost in the war). He died in 1990. I now have his sword (and, I'm proud to say, his medals). The only thing is, it's HUGE, and the only place we've found to keep it is the linen cupboard. Doesn't everyone keep a ceremonial sword propped up next to the sheets and duvet covers?!?!