‘Make sure Betsy continues with the service’
Wellander who initiated Chippawa Park Remembrance Day service leaves simple request
It seems obligatory that memories from the dust of the past surface in this place, on these days, before Nov. 11.
So on a recent, wind-swept day — with the stone-silent though eternally-listening figures of the Welland-Crowland War Memorial as a backdrop — Ken Cassavoy and Betsy Warankie resurrected memories of their own.
“My parents always talked about the war,” Warrankie said.
Her mom became a British war bride in the Second World War. It was in 1941.
“She met my dad at one of the dances,” she recalled.
Her mom “passed along the happier things from those days: funny stories, memories about the dances, popular songs from the day.”
Her dad was a Canadian soldier.
“We didn’t know he had been in the D-Day invasion until after the 50th anniversary of D-Day.”
He served in Belgium, France, Germany and in Holland for the liberation.
Her mom spoke words like:
“‘No matter where you are on Nov. 11, you must always stop and take a moment of silence.’”
Her words speak to Warankie to this day.
Cassavoy said he could make claim to family connections to both conflicts. To be brief, I’ll share just two.
He had two uncles who served in the Second World War, and a great-uncle in the First.
“And everyone had their stories to tell,” he said.
A newcomer to Welland, he found himself “absolutely amazed” by his first look at our Welland-Crowland War Memorial in Chippawa Park. It was the last large First World War memorial erected in Canada, and it was unveiled at the start of the Second World War, Sept. 4, 1939.
The cenotaph in his hometown, Newmarket, is “nothing at all” like this one, nor are “the many others” he has seen over the years.
“This, this is something special.”
He was moved by a simple, unpretentious service at the cenotaph on Nov. 11 two years ago.
And he was back there again for last year’s, even became involved in it.
A common thread runs through the comments of attendees, he said. He cannot let it go.
“Everybody I talk to says the monument should not be left abandoned on Nov. 11.”
They’re right. He’s right. Call this preaching to the converted.
Royal Canadian Legion’s Welland Branch 4 has an annual service at the cenotaph, but in keeping with long-standing tradition, it is still on the Sunday preceding Remembrance Day. The legion’s service on Nov. 11 is at the branch on Morningstar Avenue.
Many years ago I asked Eric Heard, the gentleman manager of the branch, why the cenotaph service was on the Sunday before Nov. 11.
It came down to a numbers game: more people attend that day than would on a rotating weekday.
Wellander Jean-Luc Clin held the initial Nov. 11 ceremony in Chippawa Park in 1997.
He had visited the site in 1996, found it deserted, and resolved to organize a service the next year. He stayed true to his word. Warankie said she attended her
first about 2002.
“I was just a person who would watch it. Then I got involved in 2008.”
That was when Jean-Luc Clin asked her to read the poem “In Flanders Fields.”
She remembered he would show up at the park shortly after 10 a.m. He came with a radio. Parks workers set things up for them, Warankie said.
Part of the experience was listening to the radio broadcasting CBC’s coverage of the Remembrance Day service at the National Cenotaph in Ottawa. The other part was Warankie’s reading of the poem.
Time has passed, forsaking change. The audience likes the service the way Mr. Clin planned it.
Said Warankie: “The people enjoy the simplicity. They also respect the reverence.”
Mr. Clin, though ill the past few years, attended the service he started. He died Jan. 23, 2018, aged 87.
“Before he passed away, he told his daughter, ‘Make sure Betsy continues with the service.’ His daughter said it was really important to him that we continue the tradition,” said Warankie.
The first service drew a handful of spectators. Attendance now averages about 75, she said.
“Even in the not-so-good weather, people come out to listen and watch. I don’t think we ever had a day of rain.”
Now, there is added significance, both in the year and to the services taking place across the country.
This year is the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918.
Cassavoy, a member of the Welland Museum board of directors, gets credit for involving the museum in what’s being called a “community commemoration” of the 100th anniversary. It’s from 10:45 a.m to 11:15 a.m. on Nov. 11.
Names inscribed on the cenotaph will be displayed in large posters placed beside the memorial for the service. Following the service, “the public will be invited to leave their poppies pinned to these posters near the names or conflicts of personal importance or significance to them.”
The posters, with the poppies still in place, will become part of the museum’s Remembrance Day exhibit We Shall Not Sleep, Though Poppies Grow … In Flanders Fields. It will be open Nov. 11 from noon to 2 p.m.
Great respect for the WellandCrowland War Memorial and for the significance of the anniversary explains Cassavoy’s involvement: “That’s all I want to do, make sure that something is held there during that day.”
Said Warankie, whose duty it will be to again read In Flanders Fields on Nov. 11: “That’s where the Remembrance Day service should be held, at the cenotaph. To me that’s what the cenotaph is there for, to remember those who served and didn’t come home and those who still serve as peacekeepers.”