Virtually every week, the people of Wootton Bassett stop what they are doing and line their main street, in order to pay their respects to the latest British soldiers to die in Afghanistan and be repatriated home. They are the closest town to the air force base where the bodies are flown.
(If the video link doesn't work, it is here on the BBC website.)
It started with one man, an ex-soldier who noticed a military funeral cortege passing through the village, walked to the curb and stood to attention. It has grown to encompass the whole village and any visitors. The BBC cover it faithfully. And it always makes me cry.
Lest we forget.
- Pam
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2 comments:
Wow. That's so good of that village to do that, and so awfully sad. I'm blinking away tears too.
One of our friends at our Spinning Group lost her Son a couple of months before Christmas in Afghanistan. She discovered the people of Wootton Basset first hand and their incredible kindness and dignity.
When she was being drived behind her Son's coffin to attend his funeral, she found that an enormous number of people, some just holiday makers, some just shoppers, some friends and acquaintances, lined the roads of her home town in the same way along the whole route, lending their support and demonstrating their kindness.
In days long gone, if a funeral courtege passed by on the road, people would stop in the same way and the men would remove their hats until it had passed. Some still do. A kind and respectful custom.
My name's Pam as well and yes, the people of Wootton Bassett always make me cry too.
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