 A view of the new Canadian Veterans' Memorial in Waterloo. (SUN PHOTO/Mark Bonokoski)
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WATERLOO -- It will be the wreath-draped cenotaphs across Canada -- in the small towns that form the backbone of this nation, and in the big cities that drive its economic heart -- that will be the focal points for tomorrow's Remembrance Day ceremonies.
And rightly so, lest we all even begin to forget.
For, as Binyon wrote, "At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them."
And so we will. Tomorrow. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Here in Waterloo, however, a memorial to all Canadian war veterans was unveiled last week -- honouring those who fought almost two centuries ago in the War of 1812 to those who are serving today in far-off Afghanistan.
And all the individual figures in the sculpture form a historical line that randomly descends from heavenly clouds to touch the shoulder of an old vet in a wheelchair who is holding out a poppy for those who may one day follow.
Seeing it for the first time took my breath away.
It is absolutely spectacular.
It is placed, too, in a spectacular location -- in a park now called Veterans' Green, adjacent to a row of townhouses built for soldiers returning from World War II, and across from Wilfrid Laurier University so that the young students of today and tomorrow can walk by, and peer into the bronze-cast eyes of young people of their age who once went to war to preserve so much for them.
It is, therefore, a work of spiritual art as well.
The bronze faces in the memorial each belong to someone who fought in those many wars. They are the faces of real people, chosen from hundreds of black-and-white photographs taken from the family albums of those who are the living descendants of those heroic men and women -- those soldiers, those sailors, those airmen.
"They crawled into my soul," said Kitchener sculptor Timothy Schmalz. "I was alone in my studio, for hours and and hours and hours. Just me and them.
"I studied their faces, and they became a collage of thousands of different emotions."
The idea for the memorial to all Canadian veterans came from local Kitchener-Waterloo mechanic John Damman who, until the age of 7, lived in one of those aforementioned wartime townhouses with his parents, his father then being a naval officer returning from World War II.
"What planted the true seed was a trip to Europe for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Holland," he said. "My wife, Kathryn, and I travelled with 35 veterans -- to France, Belgium and Holland ... to Juno Beach, Omaha Beach and to Vimy Ridge.
"It is the best history lesson you could ever have, because it was like you were walking in the veterans' footsteps."
It cost $350,000 to build the memorial, with not a dime coming from government.
"The people built this," said Damman, who co-chaired the committee with his wife, and who was backed by the expertise offered by honourary chairman, Mac Voisin, president of the Kitchener-based M&M Meat Shops.
"This memorial was built with private donations. And, as such, it is totally devoid of politics or political influence," said Damman. "We struck a committee, and the volunteers went out and got it done."
Timothy Schmalz, 37, is world renowned for his sculptures, the majority of them Christian-based. Patrons have spent tens of thousands for large commissioned pieces, and then have donated them to their churches or their cities.
But there are others, too, which pay homage to hard work and heroism, and therefore transcend any religion.
Go to Sudbury, for example, and to the natural rock outcrop in Bell Park.
There you will find Schmalz's powerful, 4.5 metre sculpture dedicated to miners and the history of mining.
Go a few klicks the new war memorial into adjacent Kitchener and see Schmalz's recently unveiled bronze memorial to Kitchener's fire department, and the men whose lives have been lost.
It is so finely detailed, in fact, that an aerial view of Kitchener's streets and landmarks that is sculpted into the memorial actually appear as a three-dimensional map.
It would seem a concept impossible to sculpt.
But there it is.
And it is awesome.
The memorial to Canada's war veterans, now one-week old, weighs 2.75 tonnes and sits on a 6.33-tonne block of granite. It was built, in fact, in Thailand, where Schmalz also has a studio and where bronze foundries are aplenty.
It took him months to sculpt it, of course, and then it took months for it to arrive in Canada, coming by sea.
And now it is here, and it is here forever.
Here in Veterans' Green.
