Solitude

Vimy

Emotional.

I'm talking I don't know what to say kind of emotional.

To be there, all 25,000 of us to represent a nation. To honour the place where some of us like to call the 'birthplace' of Canada. To honour the place where we lost so many and yet gained so much at the same time.

The monument is massive as it stood against the bright blue sky like a startling white cross. As a reminder of what happened one hundred years ago.

We got to meet people, to thank them for their sacrifices they made. They told us stories, of what it was like way back when. How they took cover as the artillery fire blew their comrades to bits or the constant bombs dropping. How muddy, wet, snowy, cold it was, as they thought the victory would never be won and that they would never see their families again.

But some of them did. They got to remake their life, into something they could live with and remember those who fell or lived on.

We got to see many people talk, we got to sing the national anthem as one. To hear the names of the fallen and see the boots of them lining the hills and the monumental statue.

Overbearingly emotional.

I couldn't imagine what the site would've looked like a hundred years ago, when a hundred years later the same emotion is still present.

A sense of pride.
Hope.
Sadness.

Standing there, amongst my people is something I'll never forget. There was such community with all of us together even though we didn't know each other. Other than coming from the same place.

Vimy 100.

A celebration of the birth of a nation.