Before It's Too Late

Today it's been 60 days since a dark period of recent history began to come to a close. I say began because VE Day was not the end of the war. My grandad missed VE Day because he was too busy finishing things off in what was about to become Yugoslavia. The war had not ended in the Pacific.

But it was the day that it ended in Europe and that means a great deal to many people.This is the day that we get to say thank you to the people of all he nations in the world that did their bit to allow us to be free. VE Day is when we get to thank all of them, not just those who fought on D-Day or those who fought in battles featured in Major Motion Pictures.

Because you see, without them, we have nothing. That Robert Harris novel Fatherland? That's not the worst case scenario if the Nazis had won the war. Without the people who stood up to be counted, we would have nothing and would most likely be nothing. Think of anything you have, and I guarantee you that it was given to you by the blood and guts and horror and grief and terror of those people in khaki and the huddled masses of their wives and mothers under kitchen tables and under Anderson shelters and crammed into the Underground.

I went to see my grandad today. 85 and looks much younger. Doesn't get about as well as he used to, or as well as he thinks he can. Can still remember stuff from a long time ago and can still remember stuff from last week. He's ridden camels and slogged through mud and blood and shot people and God knows what he doesn't like to talk about. He did it for the son he got just after the war and for the grandchildren he got given years later. He did it for all of us, you see... so cleaning his yard this morning and making us all some lunch was the least we could do.

The very least.

Before It's Too Late

Today it's been 60 days since a dark period of recent history began to come to a close. I say began because VE Day was not the end of the war. My grandad missed VE Day because he was too busy finishing things off in what was about to become Yugoslavia. The war had not ended in the Pacific.

But it was the day that it ended in Europe and that means a great deal to many people.This is the day that we get to say thank you to the people of all he nations in the world that did their bit to allow us to be free. VE Day is when we get to thank all of them, not just those who fought on D-Day or those who fought in battles featured in Major Motion Pictures.

Because you see, without them, we have nothing. That Robert Harris novel Fatherland? That's not the worst case scenario if the Nazis had won the war. Without the people who stood up to be counted, we would have nothing and would most likely be nothing. Think of anything you have, and I guarantee you that it was given to you by the blood and guts and horror and grief and terror of those people in khaki and the huddled masses of their wives and mothers under kitchen tables and under Anderson shelters and crammed into the Underground.

I went to see my grandad today. 85 and looks much younger. Doesn't get about as well as he used to, or as well as he thinks he can. Can still remember stuff from a long time ago and can still remember stuff from last week. He's ridden camels and slogged through mud and blood and shot people and God knows what he doesn't like to talk about. He did it for the son he got just after the war and for the grandchildren he got given years later. He did it for all of us, you see... so cleaning his yard this morning and making us all some lunch was the least we could do.

The very least.