The following was written by Gwen Szychter and appeared in the South Delta Leader.  www.southdeltaleader.com   (click on ARTS). It is wonderful that people take the time to pause and REMEMBER those who so bravely defended our freedom, let us all never FORGET.


                    Terry Murphy
              
 
VIMY PILGRAMAGE
 
Back in April I went on about the Vimy Memorial in France and a forthcoming trip to Europe during which we hoped to see it, along with a number of other sites related to the two world wars.
I said I'd let you know whether it lived up to my expectations. In a word-yes. It was breathtaking. And this despite an hour or more of waiting around in 25 degree sunshine-and despite the monument not being open to the public because of the restoration work being done. Truly, truly breathtaking. Once I'd seen the Vimy Memorial I could call the trip a success.
Not that there weren't other memorable moments. One was the experience of standing on the steps at Menen Gate in Ypres, Belgium, reading the names of the men who died defending the Ypres Salient over the years-resting place unknown. And there, almost at the end of the Canadian lists was "Rich S.N."
All the way from Ladner to Belgium to find the name of Private Sidney Norris Rich, only son of H.N. and May Rich of Ladner. Who knew?
The town of Ypres itself was one of the places I liked best on this trip. And the people, though not as many English-speakers as we found in Holland, were friendly and helpful. Completely destroyed during the First World War, Ypres (now shown on maps as "Ieper") was rebuilt because the people wanted to return to normal life. Winston Churchill, on the other hand, would have preferred that the ruins speak forever as a memorial to the war.
There were Second World War sites as well, since the focus of the tour group, organized out of Toronto, was the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Holland and V-E Day. Those, however, I'll have to save for another time-perhaps Armistice Day. Suffice to say that the Dutch were incredibly warm and hospitable, to all of us Canadians, not just the veterans in our group. Pictures? Oh yes, pictures, lots of them-mostly of First World War sites-including the remains of trenches and, of course, cemeteries.
So, in summary, it was a wonderful, fabulous trip. But, obviously an incomplete experience, so I'll have to return at another time to see everything there is to see in respect of the Vimy Memorial, once restoration is completed in 2006.
Now I'll be waiting by the phone, expecting a call from you-assuming that your sorority or men's group or community organization would like to hear about the insights and sights that I couldn't squeeze into this short column. By way of a postscript to this trip, a short time after we returned I came across memorabilia from the Vimy Pilgrimage in 1936 being offered for sale on eBay-very interesting materials, now in my possession.
Gwen Szychter is a local historian and author, who has published a series of books on the neighbourhoods of Ladner. Her website is www.ladnerslanding.com/home.html.