Lest We Forget The War.

The last of the world war two veterans.

By pure chance I happened to stumble across a live transmission of the D-day celebrations commemorating its 75th anniversary. Wow, I am glad I did. How sad to realize that only 300 or so veterans are still alive from that time. But also, what a privilege to see them there in their uniforms being idolized and fan-mobbed by young and hardy marines, seals and para-troupers.

Often, no actually always, we tend to see old people as old, with no lives lived but how wrong are we. These veterans have stared over the threshold into the entrance of hell and have come back to tell the tale. Or not. Not many talk about the horrors they had experienced and seen in order to liberate Europe.

Most of us take our freedom for granted never giving history a thought. The show they put on was fabulous and a timely reminder of how precarious times are at the moment. I loved seeing a veteran of close to 100 singing along to that fabulous song sung, We'll meet again, seeing the deference and care young service men and women afforded these elder heroes and afterwards, seeing the Queen and Prince Charles chat for long moments with these extraordinary veterans.

One forgets that the Queen herself is a war veteran and honestly, my admiration of her keeps on growing. How many 93 year old women does one see giving speeches, standing for long periods of time and being as mentally sharp as she is?

Let us hope that this program will be watched everywhere and perhaps even go viral, because I think it is important to show younger generations that war is real, and not like one of those games played online...

Biggi