Remembering The Fallen At Plaster Rock
It’s Tuesday morning, 8:25 a.m. to be exact, and seven-year-old Grace Ashworth is standing in the secretary’s office at Donald Fraser Memorial School in Plaster Rock, N.B. O Canada has just been sung throughout the school and so everyone is standing. Glancing down at a small piece of paper between her fingers, Grace, who is in Grade 2, clears her throat and then speaks into the school’s public address system.
“Today we are going to honour and remember the following soldier who died while serving our country in World War II. Sergeant Roy Wintfield Vickery, Dec. 15, 1943. Could you please remain standing for a moment of silence in his memory.” There is a long, near noiseless pause up and down the school’s hallways, throughout its offices and kindergarten to Grade 5 classrooms. “Thank you,...