My Journey With Health And Fitness – A Day For Remembrance

Yesterday was weigh in day the first time since before I went to Mexico. My trainer warned me that just due to all the muscles I have developed that my weight loss may have plateaued. Nope, the scale definitely moved and I know while in Mexico I gained a few pounds so I am happy with how much I now weigh. I am 3/4 of the way to my goal and when I told my trainer how much more I want to lose she asked me exactly where on my body did I need to lose weight. I told her it is just in my stomach area and she warned me these last few pounds will be the most difficult. She claims that I am now toned at nearly body builder level (huh?) and I have to be careful that I am loosing the small amount of remaining fat and not muscle. I told I would just keep trying to eat healthy and see how that goes.

Today is Remembrance Day and that is always a special day for my family. In 1940 my Dad enlisted in the Canadian Army at the age of 17. He had run away 2 previous times to try and enlist always to be dragged back home by my Grandfather (note the legal age to enlist was 18). On the 3rd attempt my Grandfather conceded and allowed Dad to join up. I should note my Grandfather at the time also lied about his age (he was 62) in order to enlist as well.

My Dad saw a lot of horrible things during the war. He was one of the ones that landed at Normandy on D-Day and from what we have now learned about that invasion, it was bloody and gruesome. I can’t image what that must have been like for a young man to witness. Dad never talked about the horrible things he saw while he served, rather he told us the funny stories of all the trouble him and his sidekick (Jerry) got into. This included things like stealing the Xmas turkeys and selling them on the black market or when he enlisted lying to say that he smoked so that when other soldiers who did smoke ran out of their ration of cigarettes he could sell his ration at an inflated price. Needless to say there was time spent in the brig and he never made it past the rank of private.

But Dad came home from the war wounded both physically and mentally. He fought for nearly 40 years to have his physical injuries recognized so that he could receive a disability pension. While Veteran Affairs agreed that the arthritis in his ankle was likely caused by a motorcycle accident when he was a medic they didn’t see that as a disability. Moreover, they claimed his serious back issues at first were caused by his weight and then when he lost weight and was still in pain they decided it was all in his head and he should seek psychiatric help. It wasn’t until an orthopedic specialist found big chunks missing from Dad’s spine that had filled with arthritis was his pain properly diagnosed. The cause of that damage was when Dad was a supply clerk and a large truck backed up without seeing him and pinned him to a tree thus crushing his spine. It was only after that diagnosis that he started receiving a disability pension and trust me it was not enough to support our family (though Veteran Affairs claimed that was his fault as he had had children later in life).

However, those who served in WWII never had the option of having their mental health issues recognized as a disability. My Dad, like so many other veterans, suffered from PTSD though of course no one knew what it was back then (though some suffering from PTSD were said to be shell shocked). Those demons of what he saw while he was fighting for our freedoms never left him and I can still to this day recall hearing him sometimes scream in the middle of the night. Our family suffered along with him as we got to deal with the repercussions of that PTSD but with the knowledge that we developed in the years after he passed we realized much of what he put us through was not really his fault. I just wished he had the opportunity to get support to deal with those lingering demons so that he could have been at peace.

And so today for the first time in 4 years we will head to our local Legion first to be at the Remembrance ceremony and then to raise a glass and toast my Dad. We will also toast everyone who has served for this beautiful county of ours and thank them all for the sacrifices that they made.

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 shall remember them.