Memorial Day
During WWI, Major John McCrae served as a
major and a surgeon with the Canadian Field Artillery. On 2 May, Major McCrae's friend Alexis Helmer was killed. At Helmer’s grave, he wrote a
few lines of verse that were the beginning of the poem “In Flanders Fields.” May 3, 1915
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Memorial Day
Is it enough to think to-day
Of all our brave, then put away
The thought until a year has sped?
Is this full honor for our dead?
Is it enough to sing a song
And deck a grave; and all year long
Forget the brave who died that we
Might keep our great land proud and free?
Full service needs a greater toll—
That we who live give heart and soul
To keep the land they died to save,
And be ourselves, in turn, the brave!
