By JACK WILSON
Advocate staff
Joan and Jason Snider stood at one end of the Red Deer Arena dressing room area corridor talking quietly to well-wishers while their smiles lit up the area.
Just several minutes earlier the Innisfail mother and her son, a major in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve, had together laid the first wreath Friday for the city’s ceremony of remembrance.
It was historical for the local area, since Joan is the first Silver Cross Mother to place a wreath while escorted by her son and Insp. Lawrence Aimoe of Red Deer city RCMP detachment.
The Silver Cross Mother is chosen each year by the Red Deer branch Royal Canadian Legion to lay a wreath during the Remembrance Day ceremony on behalf of all mothers who have lost children in the service of their country.
The title is named for the Silver Cross, a medal awarded to such mothers by the Canadian Forces.
“I’m proud of my son for his service and proud of him as a person,” Joan said smiling at her son.
“I was very surprised and honoured” when asked to perform the function, said Joan who was born in Ponoka.
“I never expected it because I expected a Silver Cross mother to be 80 years old,” she added.
Silver Cross mothers in Red Deer are becoming non existent; the average age of Second World War veterans is 88.
Jason, from the 20th Field Regiment of the 78th Field Battery in Red Deer, served an eight-month tour of duty with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan from February to September in 2008.
Snider was a liaison officer who helped train members of the Afghan military.
Snider said it “was a nice touch” to help his mom lay the wreath.
The name of the Silver Cross mother had been kept secret from the public, but Snider said they were approached near the end of October.
Snider said that now that all the First World War veterans are gone and there’s not many Second World War vets around there was a need to turn to younger mothers.
The fact 30 veterans died in Red Deer this last year is testament to the fact people need to be reminded of the sacrifices they made, Snider said.
As the last echoes of the programmed artillery crack drifted over the packed Red Deer Arena crowd estimated at more than 2,000, seniors and youngsters alike stood in silence glancing at the makeshift war monument to remember the country’s 114,000 war dead.
While Red Deer MP Earl Dreeshen and city MLAs Cal Dallas and Mary Anne Jablonski, and other dignitaries looked on, a bugler sounded the mournful notes of the Last Post and a piper skirled a lament.
Many in the crowd remembered Master Cpl. Byron Greff of Lacombe, who was one of 17 people killed when a suicide bomber attacked their bus in Afghanistan last month.
Greff, a member of 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, died just weeks after meeting his newborn daughter for the first time.
Greff was buried last week but his death deeply touched people in the crowd.
“War becomes all too real for you when your community loses a bright, caring father like that Lacombe soldier,” said Andrew Johnson, of Red Deer, who attempts to attend as many ceremonies as possible.
“It really strikes home that the price of freedom is high and it’s our young people who serve and protect it — and end up dying for it,” said Johnson’s wife Sandy.
Remembrance Day chairman Grant MacKay of the Red Deer Legion said because of our war veterans and their “selfless acts of courage and duty we exist as a nation.”
Legion padre Rev. Don Lewis said people must remember all Canadians who died in war, including those who died in the War of 1812.
He said Alberta’s landscape could be compared to the sacrifices made by all soldiers.
Lewis said the mountains represent the “extreme sacrifice” made by those who served and the peaks could be seen by those standing on the plains of peace.
More than 75 organizations and military units placed wreaths.
jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com