Absent Friends

Remember this Christmas all who won't be here to enjoy the good and bad times with friends and family. A minutes silance on christmas day to remember them.

 

Too true my friend and having just had a 3rd family funeral in a year, two of them children, I know exactly what you mean.

I shall be raising my glass at least 3 times on Crimbo day in memory.

 

I agree with those sentiments, in our Naval Association we have lost 3 female members this year all from breast cancer including a lovely person who died at the age of 41, a stauch lady who worked tirelessly for the RBL & our treasurer who had been ill for a long time & hid it from us all.

 

Again similar sentiments as I know 4 people who have entered Davy Jones locker in the las few months

 

Agreed!! I will be raising my glass to both my parents, a good friend, all those people i go out to who are at deaths door or have indeed crossed over, all those fellow bootnecks, matelots, pongo's etc and to the little lad who i dealt with last week and i pray for every day.

N.B

 

This will be my first xmas without my dad,,,,,,,,,, hes bin gone 5 months now................so im setting a place at the table fr him........

 

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had

For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad


By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot lads are laid

The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade

 

thats beautiful..you always have a poem fr everything..........do you write them yourself ,or do you have books

 

Awww shucks Jos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd like to take the credit but it's A.E. Housman.............one of my favourite poets and this poem is one that I keep in my memory bank.................SWMDL!!

 

Never did I imagine that I would ever know a Marine
So determined and strong yet beautifully serene
A man with a mission and an agenda to follow
Twelve hour days can make people somewhat hollow
But nothing could be further from the truth
Generosity and kindness and a great smile is the proof
Admiration flows from me to this Marine and others
Dedication and loyalty to all and their brothers
Never did I imagine that I would ever know a Marine
What other amazing things I will learn about him remains to be seen

 

Bit of good poetry caretaker.

It would hane been nice to also have given the author an acknowledgement


Copyright © Pam Frederiksen 2001



written December 26, 2001

 

There was no name on the auther other wise I would have pasted it as well

 

sad as it sounds i also spare a thought for those deployed and their families cause i know what it feels like to be away at christmas

 

My friends son who is a bootie has returned home from Afghanistan until New Year thoughts are with those who are still out there may they all return home safely to their loved ones.

 

I too will be raising a glass this Christmas to my late husband Ken who passed away 7 Feb 2005 from the dreaded C.,and also to my father who passed away 10 Jan 82.
I am the co-ordinator for the local Cancer Support Group here in Spain and we have lost 5 people we have befriended.I wish the family and friends of these people,solace,compassion and hope for the future.
Thank you lads and lasses wherever you may be serving for upholding democracy,peace and love
Jacqueline
xx

 

As Secretary and Standard Bearer for the Royal British Legion at Wimbledon in London, I have been to a lot of funerals this year some I new some I didn't. I would like to say we are all thinking of the Familys and Friends who are left behind. And all who have passed. We will remember them.

The Legion of the Living
Salutes the Legion of the Dead
They sha'll grow not old
As we that are left grow old
Age sha'll not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them

 

I found this a while back on the net, seems to be a apt thread to place it on

Naval Memories

I once looked out from the Tamar Bridge at the warships down below,
Ships of the modern Navy, whose names I did not know.
And as I stood and gazed at them on the water far below,
I saw a fleet of phantom ships and men of long ago.
The Rodney and the Nelson, the Valiant, Ramilies,
Repulse, Renown and Malaya, coming home from foreign seas.
I saw Revenge and Warspite, the ill-fated Royal Oak,
So many ships, their names made faint by shell and fire and smoke.
And some I see to harbour come as though thro' glasses dark,
The Barham and the Glorious, the Eagle and the Ark.
And then there comes the greatest, the mighty warship Hood,
Dark and grey and wraithlike from the spot on which I stood.
The big ships and the little ships returned for me to see,
there's the Glowworm and the Harding, the Devonshire and the Kent,
The Cossack and Courageous, the Suffolk and Ardent.
But mercifully hidden are the men and stilled their cries,
Now I can't see too clearly, must be the smoke that's in my eyes.
You don't know Shorty Hasset, he won the DSM,
He still fought on when Exeter was burning stern to stem.
Where now the Dodger Long and Lofty, where now the boys and men?
They are lost and gone forever; will we see their likes again?
I thought I saw them mustering on deck for daily prayer
and heard "For Those in Peril" rise on the evening air.
Then darker grew the picture as the lowering night came on,
I looked down from the lofty bridge but all the ships had gone.
Those mighty ships had vanished, gone too those simple men.
We'll surely never see the like of them again.

Author unknown.
(This poem was found pinned on the notice board of H.M.S. Bronington)

 

WOW!!!! Powerful reading LG_380. My eyes went all misty!. The Association I belong to has lost about a dozen members this year to the big "C". So I will raise a glass to them. But, I will also raise a glass to my Great Nephew, who is out in the sand, and pray that he comes home safe and sound.