Hope was enlisting, even though you weren’t old enough.

Hope was training hard, even though what was ahead was grim and bleak.

Hope was going wherever you were told to go, even if you were afraid.

Hope was getting off the big boat to an even smaller boat, with enemy guns trained at you.

Hope was taking steps in that deep water, on that fateful beach, to face imminent death.

Hope was pushing forward up that beach, when people to your left and right were being shot.

Hope was moving onwards and upwards across the beach, heart pounding, mind numb, death all around.

Hope was enduring to the end, only to be caught and imprisoned.

Hope was continuing to survive, continuing to fight for freedom even in prison.

Hope was doing all of this for a freedom, for a future, for a family you believed in even before you could see it.

Hope was risking your life to give your great-great grandchildren a chance at life.

Thank you men and women of valour who hoped against all odds, and lived out of that hope, even in the face of death.

May we be a people in this generation who have that kind of valour, living for a hope that is beyond this life.

Hope: A War Story

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