11 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca Our Command was pleased that one of our entries for the National Literary Contest was chosen. Emily Folkerts, a student from Immanuel Christian School and submitted by Transcona Branch 7 in Winnipeg placed 2nd in the Intermediate category for the Essay Contest. Congratulations Emily. They Are Our Reason “They are our reason.” The words rang in the grandmother’s ears as if she had heard them only seconds ago. She glanced down at her young grandson standing next to her. The grandmother smiled wistfully, her mind full of memories. “They are our reason.” The little girl could just barely hear her father whisper these words as he hugged her goodbye. It was 1939, and the young father was boarding the train to fight as a soldier. He kissed his baby son, then his wife, and headed to the train. The girl watched her father disappear from sight, the words ringing in her ears. “They are our reason.” When Canada announced that they were heading to war, men signed up to go across the seas and help their allies. Some of them were fathers, husbands, and others were just barely adults, leaving behind their brothers, sisters, and parents. Everyone was leaving someone precious to them. It was those they loved that was the reason for them leaving. They needed to do all that they could to protect their loved ones. Many children, such as this young girl, knew that their fathers were out there, fighting for them, their family, and their country. The little girl grew as the years blew by. Her memory of her father was faded, but one thing rang true. His last words filled her head. “They are our reason.” She tried to understand this, tried to see the importance of what he had said. But her little mind could not yet comprehend what he meant. All she knew was that her father had left to fight. So she never gave up praying for him. It was 1945, just after the war had passed. The girl was now nine years old. Her father returned three weeks after the war’s end. A few days after her father had returned home, she leaned against him, gave him a hug, and asked a question that had been on her mind for years. “Father, before you left, you whispered in my ear, ‘They are our reason.’ What did you mean?” He smiled, and told her, “It’s hard to understand. But it was what my mind was telling me. I wasn’t fighting for glory, nor for power, it was for the future of our country, and what we had left behind. That was the reason we left.” The grandson stood proudly next to his family in the rows of chairs, admiring his red poppy. He watched the veterans walk by, listened to the band playing, and tried to understand the stories read by the people that walked to the stage. He leaned over to his grandmother, “Why, Grandma? Why do we talk about soldiers? Why do we remember something from so long ago?” The grandma smiled as she thought of the line her father once whispered, and motioning towards the surrounding veterans, told her grandson. “They are our reason.” By Emily Folkerts
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