Message from Cllr. Dean Lewis
Would it be possible for you to get a post out to inform your readers that the post office will be closed until the 30th of November, due to Marcia needing an operation on the 23rd after suffering with chest/heart complications?
Wishing her a full and speedy recovery from myself and all of the residents
DEAN LEWIS
Extra good wishes from RDN. Marcia has contributed excellent stories for us over the years.
RDN TEAM
I have an anxious problem
And it’s worrying you see
I can’t think past the dreaded COVID
For the life that once suited me
It’s been like a strange horror story
And it’s not over yet
Time is getting more precious each day
The older and wiser I get
I must start thinking positively
But it’s hard when I look around
With social distancing and isolation
And face masks on the ground
But the cavalry is coming
Boris has told us that soon it will be here
The toot of the bugle is sounding in the distance
But call it a vaccine, if you prefer
I want to be an optimist
But being pessimistic is more my style
But hope always springs eternal
And time will surely tell, in a while
We all want this to be over
We all want to see this come to an end
But Lets hope it’s sooner rather than later
Because life is given only as a lend
So in the end we must think past COVID
It’s vital for the life that lets us be free
But the when, where, how and why?
Must be left to the Powers that be!!
~ ~ ~
‘Arthur Rose’
Resolven
13 November 2020
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Next week is VULNERABILITY Week with the rolling out of Operation Amethyst involving Zak Bird, Police Community Support Officer, Community Safety who has provided the following information.
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As the Resolven Branch of the Royal British Legion recently ceased to exist and according to the Welsh Government Covid-19 restrictions and recommendations, only a fraction of the normal number of people gathered at the Resolven Cenotaph at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
A shortened service of Remembrance took place and due to the non-availability of the Vicar, Mr David Richards and Mr Roger Place, former members of the local British Legion branch lead the Remembrance and Mrs Diane Sims played pre-recorded ‘The Last Post’ followed by two minutes silence.
Talented village residents had prepared an unique display of poppies and appropriately painted stones at the gates of the Cenotaph.
Resolven found a new way to remember the fallen.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.“
~ ~ ~ ~
‘Lest We Forget’
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae
1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
.
We are the Dead, Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
.
Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
~
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was a Soldier, a Physician and a Poet whose inspirational poem is synonymous with the First World War.
At the age of 41, John McCrae enrolled with the Canadian Expeditionary Force following the outbreak of the First World War. It was his second tour of duty in the Canadian Military. He had previously fought with a volunteer force in the second Boer War.
He had the option of joining the Medical Corps because of his training but he volunteered instead to join a fighting unit as a gunner and medical officer. His father was also a military man and John McCrae had grown up believing in doing his duty and fighting for his country.
John McCrae fought in the second battle of Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium and during this battle his close friend Alexis Helmer was killed on May 2nd.
The Lieutenant Colonel was present at the burial of Alexis Helmer and actually performed the service himself and was struck by all the poppies that were quickly growing around the graves of those who had died. This scene affected him deeply.
The next day he composed his famous poem while sitting in the back of an Ambulance outside Ypres. Today, this location is known as the John McCrae Memorial Site.
The poem and the poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols throughout the Commonwealth of Nations particularly in Canada where ‘In Flanders Fields’ is one of the nations best known literary works.
It also reminds us that in all acts of conflict past and present, where there is loss of life, each and everyone of them gave their tomorrow for our today.
‘WE WILL REMEMBER THEM’
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Photographs by Mike Davies
“When you go home,
tell them of us and say,
for your tomorrow we gave our today”
Rudyard Kipling
