In 1974, Julia Eckert-MacLean attended a local Nov. 11 ceremony where she spotted an unkempt old soldier who inspired a poem that gets regularly reprinted at Remembrance Day
In 1974, Julia Eckert-MacLean, the wife of a Korean War veteran, attended a local Cenotaph service. During the ceremony, she took note of an older man, unkempt and in ragged clothes.
The veteran’s condition gave Eckert-MacLean pause, and she began to consider how Canada cares for those who fought wars on the country’s behalf. Inspired, she wrote Open Letter To An Old Soldier. The poem is regularly reprinted locally at this time of year, and Sudbury.com has decided to share Eckert-MacLean’s thoughtful and powerful words against this year.
Although in the poem, Eckert-MacLean says she let the veteran walk away without speaking to him, MacLean said this week his parents later visited the Salvation Army to make a donation on the soldier’s behalf.With ragged coat and scuffed up shoes.In too long coat and hair of grey.The Bugle sounded soft and low.Shred by Shred.A soldier’s heart -I wanted so to speak your nameWas now neglected, old and gray.
The late Julia Eckert-MacLean, a native of Seaforth Ont., was an elementary school teacher and freelance writer in Sudbury, starting from the late 1950s. She passed away from pancreatic cancer in February, 2007.
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