Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
The Remembrance Day display at the Wheatland Express museum paid homage to veterans, both male and female.
With memorabilia on loan from the Wakaw Heritage Museum, the display gave a nod to the sacrifices made by those at home, with the inclusion of ration cards; slings and bandages with diagrams of how to use and apply; the soldiers with a mess kit, medals and badges, and a gas mask; and the waiting that went along with war demonstrated by the lamp in the window.
The explanation printed and displayed beside the lamp informed visitors that during the American Revolution, families would light a candle in the window every night until the soldier returned. Many families whose soldiers never returned continued to place lighted candles in their windows in remembrance. Since then, families often continued the tradition; a candle in the window was a way to guide soldiers home, to let them know there was still warmth and safety waiting for them, and it signified the hope of both soldiers and those waiting at home that they would one day come home.
In the current time, on Christmas Eve, a few hundred children in The Netherlands will be gathering at war cemeteries to place candles at the graves of more than 2,000 Canadian soldiers.
Gerard Hendriks, President of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 005 has remarked that, “It is very important to give this knowledge and feelings to our children. In a few years, there will be no liberators anymore. But we need to keep the memory alive and to tell our children. We will never forget what these men meant to us. And we will pass it on to the children.
“There has been and still is always a special bond between Canadian and Dutch people. More than 80 per cent of our country was liberated by Canadians.”
From the 1919 Canadian Soldiers’ Song Book, song 137 addresses the hope behind the light in the window:
There’s a light shining bright in a window tonight
In a home across the sea;
There’s a dear old mother, thinks there is no other,
Little boy in the world like me.
There’s a grand old daddie, proud of his laddie,
Doing his bit across the foam.
And I know they’ll keep that light in the window bright
Until the boys come home.
As the Remembrance Week ends and the displays are taken down, the memorabilia will be entrusted to the care of the Wakaw Legion for safekeeping and display as per agreement with the Wakaw Heritage Museum.
