Heather Wright/The Independent

The cold winds blew wet snow from the nearby trees as people from Florence paused to remember those who sacrificed with their service to their country.

The village holds its moment of remembrance the Sunday before Remembrance Day each year. The event, now organized by the Dawn-Euphemia Firefighters, brings members of the community to honour those listed on the community’s cenotaph.

Nov. 9, members of the Bothwell Legion joined the service, providing a Colour Guard and assisting with laying wreaths of remembrance.

Rev. Bruce Cook, the Blenheim Legion Padre and who preaches occasionally at Faith Trinity United in Shetland, told those gathered that some people in Canada don’t understand why we pause to remember. He told of the community of Groesbeek in the Netherlands. It’s the home of a cemetery containing the largest number of Canadian war dead in the country.

Each year, school children learn about the 1,684 Commonwealth soldiers, including Canadians, buried there. They stand, Cook says, at the graves on Remembrance Day “and name them one by one. And they say ‘Thank you.'”

Cook says Canadians stand at their local cenotaphs this Remembrance Day to say thank you also to our men and women who served.