Even though there was no formal service to honour those who fought for our freedoms, Coldstream residents came to show their respect anyway.
Approximately 30 people gathered, at a distance from each other, around the Coldstream Cenotaph Wednesday, Nov. 11.
Doves were released, Flanders Fields was recited, the bugle was played, on a cellphone, and one-by-one individuals and families approached the monument to lay a wreath or a poppy.
“Our family went to the Coldstream Cenotaph to lay a wreath and take a moment,” resident Brittany McMillan said. “It can be done if we space it out.”
McMillan visited with her three children and husband Paul - a Bosnia and Afghanistan veteran. A member of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Paul stood tall and proud, his medals decorating his winter coat, while gripping his daughter Marley’s hand.
Their eight-year-old son, Jonah, sharply dressed in a suit, laid a paper poppy wreath at the cenotaph while his little sister Lila danced innocently around it.
Others brought wreaths, or unpinned the red flowers from over their hearts and laid them down on the cold concrete.
“I wasn’t going to miss it,” one residents said.
The District of Coldstream had earlier laid wreaths at the cenotaph, which were later collected.
READ MORE: LIVE: Remembrance Day ceremony at Vernon Cenotaph
READ MORE: Remembrance Day closed to public across North Okanagan
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