b'Mental health was poorly understoodHe finally came home in 1918, married myeverything we do. Our remembrance should in those days, but he spent long nightsgranny who wrote to him every week duringbe active not passive; the best way for us comforting the terrified and broken, wrotethe war, and led a quiet life. He lived untilto honour the fallen is to do something letters to their families in his beautifulthe ripe old age of 80, and enjoyed smokingpositive with our lives and to be the handwriting, and cheered them up with sillyhis pipe to the end. As a family, we haveexamples of the future.jokes and talent competitions. Sometimesthe cards and letters they wrote to eachThe loss of life in war is often hard to the stretcher bearers would bring inother during their four years of separation;comprehend, yet we still witness bitter badly injured enemy soldiers, and theyand what stands out, in the most amazingdisagreements and conflicts, often were cared for too. He was barely twentyway, as well as the details of the war on a much smaller scale, in our own years old and yet he had seen so muchapparently my great granny was terrified ofcommunities and lives. I doubt many of us death and destruction. But he carried on,Zeppelins over West Bromis the deliciouslike conflict, although we sometimes need doing his best to be a good medic andordinariness of my grandpa. Sometimesto take a courageous stand for what we a good comrade. On one occasion, hehed send a thank you for the scarf orbelieve is right; we can, of course, disagree even managed to meet up with all of hiscake hed received, other times he wouldgraciously and we can be the first to seek brothers, who were also serving in Francesend a picture postcard or a hand-drawnreconciliation. I hope that, as adults, we by then. He borrowed an ambulancepicture. His letters were filled with the thingscan lead by example and teach our children and it was the only time in his life he everhe missedhe dreamt of a day at theto be at peace with themselves and with drove a vehicle. Like all good brothers,seaside or a trip to Kinver Edge. He wasothers, and to forge a more peaceful world.they managed to have an argument duringno superhero in a cape, but an example of that meeting, but they made up after anhow an ordinary lad can do amazing thingsMrs Harveyimpromptu kickabout. Football was stillwhen he puts one foot in front of the other important! Amazingly, he and all of hisand commits to doing something well. To brothers survived the war, although noneme he was just grandpa, who used to take of them would ever return to France. Whenme to see the horses in the field, or practise the war ended in 1918 he had been awaytying bows with the laces of his boots, from home for four years already, but hebut I see now that the lessons he learned was not allowed back straight away. informed every aspect of his life: he tried his Before he could come home, he had to workbest at everything he did.through the Spanish flu, the pandemic whichThis is something we can all learn; not all of swept through the world at the end of theus, thankfully, will be called to give service Great War, causing 500 million cases andin the theatre of war, but make no mistake, possibly up to 100 million deaths throughoutthe service we can offer is just as important. the globe by 1920. Its lessons never leftBeing the best members of our families, him; I was only six when he died, but I haveschool and community we can be is so a strong memory of him showing me howimportant. Living our lives with the values of to wash my hands, and insisting they werecommunity, aspiration, respect, endeavour clean before tea. He had seen first-hand theand service, not only here in school, but horrors of unchecked infection, and he wasas we get older, will enable us to have a a stickler for cleanliness. positive impact on everyone we meet and 13'