Death of an Uncle

My sole remaining Uncle has just died, sadly, in a hospital after a fall, from which he suffered a broken hip, further complications weakened him so much he did not respond to treatment. He passed away alone at 0130 hrs, which I’m told is a common time for those near death to surrender to it. It seems to me that God has taken him into his loving arms to take away his suffering. The night before, when his partner visited, he had managed to summon the strengh to take and to squeeze her hand. Which she is now believing him to have used to say good bye.

I’m still in a little shock. While not unexpected, he had been unwell for the past couple of years and was waitng for transfer from hospital to a care home, something he was unhappy about, as he only wanted to be allowed to go home to die.

He had been a vibrant, fully alive and with all his faculties until very recently, when Dementia had reduced his ability to communicate. But he would come alive when members of his family or his partner Margaret visited and particularly when talking about his life and Army service in the last war.

I was incredibly proud of him, he was a true hero, in the quiet, unassuming way that he described his experiences of fighting with his Battalion in the Alamein campaigns. Being taken prisoner, his transportation to Italy and escaping by jumping of a moving train taking him to a POW camp. He ended up fighting with the Italian Partisans for nearly a year before recapture. He suffered ill-treatment at the hands of his captors, before being taken to be held in a POW camp in Poland. He endured the long march of prisoners forced to march back into Germany in the face of Russian advances until liberated by the Americans. He continued in the Army (he was a Regular), but remained haunted by the over 800 casualties from his Battalion, during WW2. He spoke about them with sadness and seemed to miss so many of them.

 As a person, he was a nominal Christian, but had felt very much estranged from God. He said to me once that he couldn’t see how a God would entertain him who had seen so many bad things, and who had killed people. He believed he was lost and seemed resigned to the fact. I’m not sure whether he actually had be able to reconcile this before his death, I sincerely hope that he did.

May Perpetual Light shine upon him,
May he rest in peace,
And Rise in Glory
Amen

Kings Badge of the Durham Light Infantry from http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk/british_regiment/durham_light_infantry.htm

Remembrance Day

Today at 1100 hrs I led a small act of Remembrance at a Rural Church, with about a dozen people.   This was the second time I was privileged to share with those there the words and prayers of reconciliation and forgiveness which allows us to pay our respects to all who have suffered and died through the wars since WW1.

Coming from a military background, so having been involved for over 45 years with these ceremonies, perhaps I might feel a little jaded, but on the contrary, each passing years makes it more poignant and I grieve for those I know who have suffered.

I find myself wondering why mankind seems to be so set on its own mutual destruction through war, and its causes.    As a soldier, I was sent to places, where I did my duty, and If I am honest, did not really think about why I was there, or what I was doing.  It was enough that the Government sent us and we were doing our duty.  

How my perspective has changed, now I see war as an evil and perhaps a manifestation of that evil which is the diametric opposite of good.  And I wonder how I would justify my actions in those situations if challenged by someone, particularly my grand children, and perhaps to my maker.

Life is so precious, it should never be sacrificed in any war, and I pray that we will all come to the realization of how unnecessary it actually is.