This morning, a long-time Collingwood resident, dedicated Legion member and volunteer will carry a wreath to the cenotaph representing the Silver Cross ladies and mothers.
Ruby Klinck was named the Silver Cross Lady by the Collingwood Legion Branch 63 this year.
As a member of the Ladies Auxiliary and later the Legion from 1994, Klinck has seen the honour bestowed upon many women.
She was surprised when the Legion president arrived at her house this year to give it to her.
“It means everything,” she said. “I felt it was such an honour to represent the Silver Cross Lady.”
The Memorial Cross, also called the Silver Cross was first created in 1919 in Canada as a memento of personal loss and sacrifice on the part of widows and mothers of Canadian sailors, aviators, and soldiers who died during the First World War. It has carried on and is still awarded to the mothers and widows of those who have died in conflicts and wars since the First World War.
There is a National Silver Cross Mother named each year, and in Collingwood, the legion chooses a Silver Cross Lady to lay a wreath on behalf of the women who lost sons and husbands in war.
Klinck will carry that wreath today to the Collingwood cenotaph.
She said she will be thinking about the men who died at war, and the women who lost their husbands and sons.
“I think about it continuously,” she said. “It’s such an honour to respect that.”
Klinck’s own husband and son are both veterans. Her husband joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers in 1959 and was assigned to homeland security.
Her son was in the Royal Canadian Navy for nine years and was injured in the line of duty.
Klinck volunteers for the Collingwood Legion’s “sick and visiting” team sending cards to those who are unwell and visiting where possible.
Before she joined the legion, while she was working and raising her two children, Klinck supported the Legion for 40 years.
She and her husband, Herb, have lived in Collingwood for their 53 years of marriage, and in the same house for 43 years. They have a daughter and a son, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Today as Canadians mark Remembrance Day and many attend a cenotaph service, Klinck asks everyone to think about the men who lost their lives in conflict.
“I think we have to remember them, because they served their country,” she said.
