Quilts for Veterans

Lessons In History

These are the heroes and battles of the past that protected this nation and allowed us to build what we have today.  Remember them...honor them. 

  • In Flanders Fields


    Each Memorial Day we see members of Veterans organizations selling paper poppies as a fund raiser for their projects.  But the funds raised are not as important as the poppies themselves.  How many people know the origin of these poppies?  What do they signify to the warrior?  Why was it written?

    The symbolism of these poppies began in WWI.  They signify the poppies growing over the graves of the fallen of the battles in Belgium and all the other battlefields.  It was almost discarded and lost when the author tore the page from his notebook and discarded it because of the feelings they evoke.  But a friend found the page and preserved it.  Today it echoes the feelings of those who have served under the most daunting of conditions and prevailed. 

    Read it through the eyes and heart of those who serve:

    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the Dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
    In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders fields.

    — Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)