I’ve been told that parents should never outlive their children.
Like many parents of teenagers, I have been there in that moment. The moment where your child has disappeared, and you have no idea where they are.
Where you are driving around aimlessly, wondering and hoping.
At some point I began to despair that the worst had happened – that she was gone. I have never felt so lost.
Fortunately, my search was successful. I found her safe.
The experience was but a moment in time for me.
Here in Prince George, for the parents of Darren Fitzpatrick and Greg Matters, the tragedy was real.
Something they now live with every day.
Their sons fought for the freedoms that our flag represents and understood the danger they faced in doing so.
It was the same for those who fought before them in the Great War 108 year ago.
Or 25 years later when men from our community left their families to travel across the ocean to defend another country’s freedom.
They fought on, despite friends being injured or killed.
They fought to ensure that the citizens of those countries had their freedom - instead of bowing down to a dictator.
We live a life today that most take for granted.
We live as we choose, with the right to elect our leaders, to worship as we wish, with equality, while being able to choose who we want to be and who we want to love.
However, as time goes on, we don’t think as often of those who served and made the ultimate sacrifice, or those who came home forever changed by what they saw and survived.
The values and freedoms they fought for have become less appreciated.
Today another war is being fought. Yet another dictator is trying to force his neighbour to bow down.
The difference this time is that we are not being asked to send our men and women over to fight in protecting their freedom.
Instead, we are being asked to help support the grandmothers, mothers, and children.
They are fleeing to safety as their cities are being bombed and they are left without electricity or water.
Some of those who have fled have chosen to come to our community.
If you can help support them, please visit pgforukraine.ca.
Their sons have remained in Ukraine where many are fighting for their country’s freedom.
All the while, their grandmothers and mothers live with uncertainty, thinking of their sons back at home.
Each day they are wondering if they will receive the same call that the parents of Darren Fitzpatrick and Greg Matters received.
For me, I pray for the day when parents no longer have to wonder if they will receive “that” phone call.
With permission from Jim, Colleen, and Lorraine.
“We Will Remember Them”
World War I (1914 – 1918) Population of Canada: 8 million. Persons who served: 650,000. Injured: 172,000. Killed: 66,000
World War II (1939-1945) Population of Canada: 11 million. Persons who served: 1,159,000. Injured: 55,000. Killed: 44,090
Korea Killed: 516. Vietnam Killed: 134. Bosnia Killed: 23, Afghanistan Killed: 158. UN Peacekeeping Missions Killed: 130.
Cameron Stolz is a Prince George writer.
