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“Wait! You missed a year”. For a variety of reasons I did not go to BBR2018.

I had some emotional struggles with Wounded Warriors in 2019. The organization had decided to included Police, Fire and Ambulance in their core programs. As the former wife of a Police Officer, I was angry at the Police. I was angry at their lack support for the Mental Health of their Officers and the families. That lack of support was a big contributing factor to the breakdown of my marriage almost 30 years earlier.

It’s a long story and it makes no sense, but I didn’t want to include Police Officers in my Fundraising efforts. I didn’t want THEM infringing on my life anymore than they already had.

As much as now BBR is for families like mine, people like me, I wasn’t ready to face any of that. That insight was still several years away for me.

My children’s paternal Great-Grandfather, Pte James Hackett, had landed at Dieppe, 1942. Although not part of Operation Overlord in 1944, we would be visiting the Commonwealth Graveyard there. This was important to me and to Nora, my Mother-in-law, so regardless of my anger about the move to include police, I still decided to go.

We arrived at the Dieppe Commonwealth Graveyard and a local man was teaching two other men how to play the bagpipes.

They were practicing and although it certainly wasn’t the Bagpipers original plan, he played his pipes as part of our Ceremony of Remembrance. How much more powerful this was for us all. He had chosen to teach his students in the Canadian graveyard. We were just an accident that happened along and were privileged to exeperience this unofficial tribute to our men.

He also shared, in broken english, a local story about a Company Bagpiper who landed on Dieppe Beach that day in 1942. When the soldier saw the slaughter of his comrades and the futility of the fight, he took out his pipes and played until he couldn’t play any longer.

The magnitude of the futility of a raid on Dieppe Beach is overwhelming. The loose, rock beach was wide open and far from the objective. There was nothing to hide behind. The Germans were well established in their defences. It amazes me the things that trained soldiers will do. I am not surprised by the traumas they live with after.

I am always touched by how Europe still remembers what Canada did to liberate them. Remembrances isn’t just one day each year. Every town has its ceremony, its day of importance. Everyone there still knows someone who lived the war.

A few days later we arrived at Pegasus Bridge, a key objective in March 1944. The Bridge and town were in high ceremony when we rode our bikes in. All of Normandy was celebrating D-Day. We rode across the bridge to the cafe immediately east of it. An elderly woman and her family own the cafe on the banks of the canal. She was inside on this day enjoying the 75th Anniversary clebrations. She was also there in 1944, hiding the basement that night while the Germans did their best to prevent the Allies from crossing the bridge.

We, here in North America, are so fortunate to have never heard the guns of war on our soil. Unfortunately, because of this, we can not truly appreciate the peace that we have, that our ancestors died for. Not the way they do still in Europe. Every Canadian should visit these Battlefields where our sons died so long ago and we should all support our Sons and Daughters, who today, “Stand on Guard for Thee.”

For me, the most powerful experience of the ride, was June 6th. We had been joined on our journey by Russell Kaye. The last time that he had been to Juno Beach was June 6th, 1944.

We rose early that morning to ride from hotel to Juno Beach to walk onto the Beach with Mr. Kaye at the same time as he had landed in 1944.

Unfortunately, just past Bény Sur Mer Commonwealth Cemetery, we met a road block. We were not permitted to pass. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald Trump’s security detail prevented us. Phone calls went back and forth from our ride leaders to our team at Juno Beach. Phone calls went back and forth between the Security Detail and their superiors.

We were sent away and disappointedly we returned to Bény Sur Mer only to finally receiver word that we were permitted through. Apparently Mr. Kaye refused to enter the beach. He told the officials that he had walked on the beach in 1944 with his comrades and he would not walk on that day without his comrades of 2019. And so we did. (note: the Canadian war ship guarding the beach on the 75th Anniversary of the Canadian’s landing at Juno Beach.

I’ve left, for last, the story that I most often tell of this day. Every year before June 6th, a school teacher from the area that neighbours the beach, has her young class make model landing craft. On June 6th, she takes the children down to the beach and lays out a blue tarp. The children reenact, with their little craft, our Canadian men coming ashore to liberate their home town.