Multi Coloured Blog Swap Carnival

When I heard that the lovely Trouble Doubled had created the Multi Coloured Blog Swap Carnival to celebrate her first year of blogging I jumped at the chance to sign up to it. I love the idea of discovering new blogs as it gets too easy to fall into a blog rut where you’re only reading the same old blogs, and there are literally thousands of great blogs out there! I opted for the completely random swap and both my host and swap partner ended up being craft blogs which is great as although I love craft I never make the time to do any so I’m hoping their websites will inspire me!

Christmas Pie Crafts is hosting my blog post, and I’m hosting an inspiring post by Keynko, so here it is…

I always remember as a child watching the festival of remembrance on TV every November and as a family we always attended a local service on Remembrance Sunday. Mainly because it was just the thing you did. My parents were children of the wartime generation, both evacuated, both brought up on rationing and my father lost his home twice in bombing raids. My Uncle, who I sadly never met, served in France and was a hero to his family. My great grandfather was the victim of a gas attack in the trenches and was one of the first employees of the poppy factory in the 1920‘s. When my sister joined the RAF it became even more part of our lives as we supported those of her friends who served, and in time her husband, who was killed. Remembrance Sunday took on a whole new meaning to us all then, and I’m glad to say my children, who were born after their uncle was killed, still lay a poppy in remembrance of him.

My sister now works as a pensions advocate for the Royal British Legion, helping those who have served and been injured. She loves what she does and I have to say – I think she’s pretty good at it!

I made the decision a couple of months ago that I needed to get back to a more vocational way of life and helping out the Legion seemed a good place to start. So having signed all the paper work today, I am on the road to becoming a welfare case worker for them. I will be assisting veterans and their families to access support for the Legion poppy fund or government bodies as they need. They aren’t all old people who served in the war, in fact they are an increasingly small sector of the membership. Many of them are young men and women who have served in recent years and who’s families for whatever reason have fallen on hard times and need help.

I’m looking forward to it enormously, back to a caring profession as I wanted, and doing something to help people I have great respect for. I’m expecting it to be hard, and at times heart-breaking. But I hope I can make a difference to someone, somewhere!

So when you see someone in November selling poppies, put some money in the tin and accept my thanks – I know it will do some good!

If you know of someone who has served, or is the spouse of child of someone who served, remember there is always help if they need it.

Thanks Keynko for a lovely post and for reminding us that we can all make a difference. x