In Waters Deep by Eileen Mahoney

In ocean wastes no poppies blow,
No crosses stand in ordered row,
There young hearts sleep…
beneath the wave …
The spirited, the good, the brave,
But stars a constant vigil keep,
For them who lie beneath the deep.
'Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer
On certain spot and think. “He’s there.
”But you can to the ocean go…
See white caps marching row on row;
Know one for him will always ride…
In and out… with every tide.
And when your span of life is passed,
He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.
”And they who mourn on distant shore
For sailors who’ll come home no more,
Can dry their tears and pray for these
Who rest beneath the heaving seas…
For stars that shine and winds that blow
And whitecaps marching row on row.
And they can never lonely be
For when they lived… they chose the sea.

Submitted by Mark Lance,Petty Officer #2nd class (RET)

Don’t forget to remember

November 1, 1918 was a long time ago and so, too, was September 2, 1945. While The Great War (World War I) and the Second World War aren’t the only conflicts where Canada has played a role, they are the ones which have largely defined the day we know as Remembrance Day.

Contemporarily, we find fewer and fewer persons alive who have vivid memories of those conflicts and with each passing of a calendar year, we mark distance in time, as well as ability to empathize, with the scale of a commitment and loss which are near unfathomable. And therein lies a challenge to which we must rise.

Before either of those wars, philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist George Santayana formulated what has now been almost reduced to nothing more than a meme: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” However, we are well-advised to retrieve his words out of the social media mayhem and consider them more deliberately.

While it may be difficult to conjure sufficient personal context with which to inform remembrance, we should know that it is only through honouring the past, whether it be in memory or in celebration, that we can hope to ensure adequate urgency in committing to community and country, and working together for a better world.

That should be our stated goal, lest we forget.

by Glen Hartle

Private Paul Dagenais

Army Unit: 2nd

Depot Battalion, Eastern Ontario

Born August 5, 1896 Otter Lake, Quebec

Enlistment June 28, 1918 Ottawa, Ontario.

Ptv Paul Dagenais, the son of Mrs. Sofia Dagenais of Otter Lake, Quebec, was enlisted from Aug. 8, 1918 until June 23, 1919 and served with the 2nd Depot Battalion in WWI. Pte Paul Dagenais was a brave young soldier who for England (UK) and worked as a porter and to deal with the wounded and dead in the Theatre of War of WWI. He returned home in August of 1919 and developed gangrene shortly after in his legs, from war-related injuries. Both legs had to be amputated. He used a

wheelchair until he passed away in June 1961.

Pte Paul Dagenais was a WWI hero.

rtz.