Ninety years ago, on November Eleven of the year Nineteen Eighteen at eleven AM, in a fancy railroad car parked in Rethonde in the great Forest of Compiegne France the belligerents of World War One came to their senses and signed an accord of Armistice.
Guns would stop and bells would ring.
What was left of an entire generation listened to those bells in disbelief, needing some time to realize that they would get out of the trenches alive and go back home. Many, many more would never have that chance, it was too late for them, all eight millions of them. But at least, for the lucky ones, sweetheart would be reunited, parents would get their sons and daughters back, sons and daughters would get their parents back.
At first we celebrated that day as Armistice Day, then when the War To End All Wars did not keep its promises and more conflicts ebbed and flowed, some more Armistice where signed and soon we changed this celebration to Veterans Day in the US, Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth.
On this day we honor the sacrifice of all the Veterans, men and women, draftees and volunteers.
We should also honor those who stayed behind in fear, parents, loved ones, children living in anguish, living with the guttural fear of two men in uniform knocking at the door to announce that a loved one would not be coming back and seat among his/her family and friends. Those are also in their own way Veterans to be honored. A folded flag and the gratitude of a nation cannot fix the hole in your heart where the hope of getting reunited with a loved one was kept.
I was born in France during the Second World War and as all Europeans of my generation, I share in the enormous debt of gratitude owed to the men and women who fought to give us another chance to be free.
I am now an American Citizen and I know that with all the benefits I received with my citizenship came also a large share of the debts owed to the Veterans and their loved ones.
I am not a religious men in the sense of belonging to a Church but I pray to God, whatever is name is, to hold all those Veterans and their kins in the Palm of his hand and to look kindly on them. They have given more that their share. Thank you the chance to be free you gave to me and my family.
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