My grandfather served in both World Wars. His birthday was November 11 and he frequently told his family that the end of World War I was the best birthday gift he ever got. He may have had a point, you know.

Yesterday, I happened to chat with a lovely British woman who knows so much more about today’s commemoration than I. In the UK, people wear poppy buttons (sometimes seen in the US) in remembrance of those who fell in battle during the Great War. The poppy reference comes from the poem “In Flanders Field” written by John McCrae [updated – McCrae was a Canadian and the Canadians wear the poppy buttons, too!] who witnessed the death of his friend in battle. Flanders is a region of France where poppies grow wild there, as they do in other parts of Europe.