Tomorrow is Remembrance Day.

At 11am, we pause to Remember. From its beginnings as Armistice Day in memory of the First World War, to a time when we remember the both the dead and all of those who have fought, and still fight in conflicts across the globe.

Yesterday was also a significant day for us. It was the third anniversary of a friend’s passing. She died, but brought life to seven others with the gift of her organs. And while I was at a dinner with her family and friends, I received notice that yet another old friend had just passed away, only a week after her mother went.

This year has been our year of funerals. We’re only in our fifties, but for some reason, this has been ‘one of those years.’

It seems that every time we turn around, another friend has left this earth, and we are left, sad, and sorrowing because we miss them dreadfully, and because we mourn with their families.

Even now, Australia is experiencing dreadful bushfires. People have died in the incredible infernos fanned by wind and our ever present drought. The countryside is so dry, that anything that catches light has tinder dry fuel to feed upon. Our firefighters (the majority of them volunteers), are pressed to the limit.

As a family, we’ll put into place some emergency preparations for Tuesday, as our region is forecast to be in ‘Catastrophic‘ fire conditions. Our daughter has already mentioned the possibility of the common opposite us going up. It hasn’t burnt since we moved here, 17 years ago. The fuel load is high. We have reassured her that we’ll prepare well.

But I thought that tonight, and tomorrow, it’s important to be reminded of more than just deaths in war. Our friends deserve our remembrance too. And our emergency services personnel. So when you don your poppy on Tuesday, spare a thought for those people as well.

Remember.