On our way back from holiday in August this year we visited the Somme. We had enjoyed a family reunion with our two adult sons but they had chosen to fly home, leaving my husband and I to enjoy the drive back at a slower pace. As we drove through the Somme the sky darkened and a deep gloom descended, it seemed to me that the summer ended there in that strange, deeply scarred landscape. We decided to visit Vimmy ridge and to see something of the trenches and war memorials. I cannot imagine the terrible hardship and suffering endured by so many of those young soldiers, I am so grateful that we did not live in those tragic times and did not have to wave goodbye to our menfolk.
“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 will remember them.”
