"What a blessing. The sun came out. Usually we get nasty weather and come away soaked."
Every year in November, Rosemarie Block stands with the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 60 at West Vancouver's Memorial Arch.
She recognizes every face in the ranks of veterans, reduced again this year, and remembers those who are no longer with us, her husband Ken among them.
Rosemarie Loveday was a schoolgirl in England during the Second World War.
While she was away at a convent school at Tiverton in Devon, her parents opened their home at Leigh-on-Sea to servicemen, giving them a place to read, write letters, have a bath, relax.
"My father said he hoped someone was doing the same for his son (my half brother) who was serving in Egypt," she says.
On her journeys from home to school, Rosemarie would transfer to the "Tivvy Bumper" at Exeter station.
One day her train arrived at the station just after a bombing raid.
"This was farming country, crops and cattle, no reason to bomb it.
The station windows were blown out and let me tell you, glass doesn't shatter neatly like it does on the 'telly.' Great jagged pieces were lying all round. Women and children were standing about, still in their nightclothes and porters lay on the luggage trolleys, all of them dead with labels to identify them," she says.
Rosemarie was back home on VE Day, May 8, 1945. Word was passed among the servicemen who had visited the house to return and celebrate victory in Europe.
"Flowers brought in from the garden, music playing, the glass doors between the living and dining rooms pulled open to make room for tables groaning with food. The soldiers came in to that beautiful sight and broke into song. It's a glorious memory," she says.
Not long after, at another party, Rosemarie met her future husband, Ken Block. Ken had joined up at 17, trained as a signalman at Catterick Camp and served in the Mediterranean - the troops in the bowels of the transport vessels knowing by the perfume of the spices that they were in North Africa - then on to Sicily and up to Monte Cassino.
By the early 1950s, Ken and Rosemarie were married with two daughters, Lynne and Alix. They decided Canada promised a better future for their family and West Vancouver has been home ever since.
Ken joined the West Vancouver Legion and Rosemarie's participation began with the ladies' auxiliary. She carried on with the legion after Ken passed away.
"We thought we would always be together, then you find it's not so and it happens at a time when you need the companionship. I know I'm not the only one who has found that out. Ken is gone but I have a wonderful family, and I'm very proud of every one of them," she says.
Rosemarie also takes pride in having been named a life member of the legion and to have received a Governor General's Caring Canadian Award for her services as a volunteer.
The veterans school visiting program that Ken started in West Vancouver has the most meaning for Rosemarie.
Through the legion, every school in the community has a Remembrance Day program and welcomes the annual visit from veterans.
Rosemarie describes a Remembrance Day ceremony she attended this year.
"I watch those little hands holding the candles and the poppies. It's the look on their faces, the concentration as the candle starts to waver a little, they're so careful. It's a beautiful ceremony," she says.
Passing the light of remembrance to coming generations increases in importance as our veterans leave us. "We wouldn't have what we have today without our veterans. We owe them. They made our lives possible and we must remember what they gave us," says Rosemarie in a testament to their legacy.
When Rosemarie stands with her family at West Vancouver's Memorial Arch each November 11, she remembers the veterans, those who are not with us this year and those who have gone before.
Most years, the time to remember comes drenched in rain. This year was an exception.
The family lunch following the ceremony was not. It's a tradition that began when Ken and Rosemarie were together, serving in the West Vancouver Legion.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
