This year Grandview Park, home to our community cenotaph, is under construction as the city works to rejuvenate this space. Our Remembrance Day ceremony was moved to the much smaller courtyard outside the Britannia Community Centre. The master of ceremonies explained how they had trouble finding a complete band and horn player to perform “Last Post.” When all was said and done, the Commercial Drive community in East Vancouver honoured Veterans Day on a much smaller and significantly quieter scale than it’s accustomed to hosting.

My partner Kurt remarked on how Christian and English the ceremony was this year. Traditional but oddly out of place against the backdrop of our diverse neighbourhood.  Many people in attendance were honouring ancestors, family and friends from all around the world with Italian, German, Japanese, Greek, American, Canadian, and Middle Eastern roots. In fact, the list goes on and on. After all was said and done, Kurt and I found ourselves craving a more secular ceremony, one that compliments the multicultural generations of young veterans and peace keepers today, as well as our ancestors and veterans of World War I and World War II. It’s interesting to think about how these ceremonies will evolve as the years go by.

Some traditions, however, that have carried on from Armistice day, 92 years ago, will always move me. From the timbre of the horn during “Last Post” to the buzz of the engine of the World War II fighter plane as it flies in formation above my head. It’s these rituals that make the memory of my family come alive; men and women who served their country and belonged to a movement that sought peace and safety for people all around the world. A movement we continue to honour and support.