Their appearance was brief but poignant.
Dozens of white crosses were set out before the cenotaph at the intersection of Cowrie Street and Wharf Avenue this week ahead of Remembrance Day. While they were removed Thursday morning to prepare the area for Saturday’s public ceremony, the perennial organizer of the project still finds their presence important.
“It's a very real reminder of the sacrifices people made, who would have been your neighbours, who would have been your friends, your family members, or your sons and daughters,” said Maj. Paul Dhillon, a local physician who is also a medical officer with the Canadian Forces’ 11/12 Field Ambulance reserve unit based in Vancouver. “As we get further away from our large global conflict, I think we forget about that huge sacrifice that people made, from Sechelt.
“It really establishes that connection between the past, the present and the future.”
As a reservist, Dhillon sees it as “not unlikely” that he’ll be deployed in the next year or two. And these days he’s busy with military matters, he flew in from a military meeting in Norway on Monday night, put up the crosses Tuesday morning and by that evening, was headed out again for another engagement. But squeezing in the time to put up the crosses was important to him.
Dhillon started the practice of putting up the crosses around the cenotaph in 2020, at a time where ceremonies were shrunk or cancelled.
Now, as the pandemic becomes a memory, Dhillon – with the support of the local Legion and Rotary Club – continues to put up the crosses he and his wife Sarah constructed over a couple of weeks in 2020. “It's been such a positive response from the community, even just people when we're setting it up, they’ll come by stop and have a bit of a chat. So we're going to keep it going.”
– With files from Sean Eckford
