Canadians are welcome

It is with great respect that the local people treated us Canadians here in the area of Flanders Field...not just because of the troops that we sent, not just because of the men that died... not because of the monuments built by Canadians, not just because of the poem of John McCrae, or the fact that many Canadians were doctors and nurses and worked hard in non combative roles to support the living and the dying at the front... although that alone gave me great pleasure... but because not a single tree was left after the war... they had all been blown to pieces... and Canadians came and planted maple trees after the war.... so although we did not see any poppies blowing between the crosses row on row... being the beginning of fall it was welcoming to see the maple trees turning red and the leaves blowing between the gravestones....