mckelvey
11th Nov 2013, 08:13
A Remembrance Story:
My late mother attended our local church in Northern Ireland weekly until her death 3 years ago. This is the same church where my 6 siblings and I were all christened, confirmed and some married. Her friend, with whom she attended church, mentioned at one Remembrance service a number of years ago that her father had been killed in WWII. She didn’t know how and when her father was killed as her mother died when she was a toddler and she was brought up by her grandparents who didn’t like to discuss it. She told my mother that “I would love to know what happened to my father before I leave this earth myself”
My mother told me this story a few months later during a visit to me whilst I was serving in Naples. I gathered as much information as possible from my mother and simply searched the CWG Wedsite for clues. Lo and behold within a few minutes we tracked his history down and was able to print off a synopisis on how and when he died. We were also able to locate where he was remembered and astounded to discover he died at Monte Cassino and his name was on one of the memorials there.
As we were in Naple we jumped in the car the next day for the 1.5 hour to Monte Cassino, located his entry on the memorial and the roll of honour. I took some photographs and along with the print outs from the CWG Website gave them to my mother for her friend.
You can imagine my mother’s friend’s delight when given this news and photographs the next time they met for church. She was absolutely ecstatic and carried the artefacts around in her purse until her death some 6 months ago. Thanks to the CWG and little bit of leg work I was pleased to bring a little bit of happiness to this elderly lady prior to her own demise.
We Will Remember Them.
My late mother attended our local church in Northern Ireland weekly until her death 3 years ago. This is the same church where my 6 siblings and I were all christened, confirmed and some married. Her friend, with whom she attended church, mentioned at one Remembrance service a number of years ago that her father had been killed in WWII. She didn’t know how and when her father was killed as her mother died when she was a toddler and she was brought up by her grandparents who didn’t like to discuss it. She told my mother that “I would love to know what happened to my father before I leave this earth myself”
My mother told me this story a few months later during a visit to me whilst I was serving in Naples. I gathered as much information as possible from my mother and simply searched the CWG Wedsite for clues. Lo and behold within a few minutes we tracked his history down and was able to print off a synopisis on how and when he died. We were also able to locate where he was remembered and astounded to discover he died at Monte Cassino and his name was on one of the memorials there.
As we were in Naple we jumped in the car the next day for the 1.5 hour to Monte Cassino, located his entry on the memorial and the roll of honour. I took some photographs and along with the print outs from the CWG Website gave them to my mother for her friend.
You can imagine my mother’s friend’s delight when given this news and photographs the next time they met for church. She was absolutely ecstatic and carried the artefacts around in her purse until her death some 6 months ago. Thanks to the CWG and little bit of leg work I was pleased to bring a little bit of happiness to this elderly lady prior to her own demise.
We Will Remember Them.