We do remember them everyday...

TRURO - Brian McKenna had a special relative on his mind yesterday as he stood quietly in the brisk November wind.
It was his uncle Gerald Crawford Rae he was thinking about despite never meeting him.
"Not much was spoken when I was growing up because of the lost," McKenna said following the Remembrance Day service in downtown Truro. "My grandmother, as I recall, never mentioned it at all. I suppose losing her only son was very difficult."
Gerald, a member of the Canadian infantry, Nova Scotia regiment, 85th battalion, was killed in northern France on Nov. 6, 1918.
McKenna, whose middle name is Rae, started looking into his family genealogy years ago and found out more information about Gerald.
He decided to make a memorial to place at the cenotaph with information about his uncle and a picture of the 19 year old.
"I had to do this. Ninety years, it was time," he said his voice trembling, as he wiped a tear from his eye.
Hundreds of people lined Prince Street on Tuesday, just shy of 11 a.m. and clapped as veterans marched to the cenotaph. An estimated 2,000 people packed in tight, in some cases at least 10-deep, to hear the message on the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
"November the eleventh is the day we gather each year to remember the brave men and women who went to war so we could have the freedom we have today," said Royal Canadian Legion Branch 26 president Gary Higgins.
"And we do remember them every day, every month and every year."
He said a seldom-talked part of the war was the difficulties the men and women left behind.
"In spite of all their difficulties, I've never heard one of them complain," Higgins said. "Our freedoms are hard fought, both in past wars and current conflicts, and our men and women are still paying the price today on our behalf."

jmalloy@trurodaily.com

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