A windchill of -8C and winds gusting to 75 kilometres an hour buffeted around Islanders and visitors attending Remembrance Day ceremonies across P.E.I. Sunday morning.
At least one service moved inside because of the weather.
Still, hundreds of people lined the streets around the cenotaph in Charlottetown, where the service included the Canada Remembers choir, a military band and a tribute to MCpl Scott MacDougall, who died in April after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following his time serving in Afghanistan.
Jane Thompson-Shaw said the cold and wind during the Remembrance Day ceremony is nothing like what soldiers have gone through.
“Compared to the stories that dad shared with us about being in the trenches, this is a cake walk,” said the Charlottetown resident.
Thompson-Shaw has attended a Remembrance Day service every year with her father John James Thompson to remember those who died in war.
This year, she attended to remember her father, too.
“He was just a great guy,” she said.
The veteran of the Royal Regina Rifles died at age 93 last year.
He relayed many stories of the Second World War to Thompson-Shaw over the course of her life.
She said he and his comrades once captured 350 Germans as prisoners of war.
However, the victory was not what her father remembered most during the re-telling.
“They (German soldiers) were the same age as him,” said Thompson-Shaw. “They were just boys from the country.”
The young age of the soldiers in the Second World War is something Thompson-Shaw thinks about when she’s at a Remembrance Day ceremony.
“They lived in absolute cold, and filth,” she said. “They didn’t have meals on a regular basis. They were scared. They were kids. They were 18 years old.”
Sunday’s Remembrance Day service in Charlottetown was one of many services paying tribute to veterans across the Island.
Remembrance Day honours those who fought in the First World War a century ago, and for each war and conflict since. It also honours veterans who served in times of peace.
