Veteran Nicholas Moses wanted to honour a fallen comrade as Remembrance Day approaches.
Working at Newmarket’s Cadence Health and Wellness, he created a cross bearing the name of Byron Greff.
Moses knew Greff well, as the two served in the same battalion in Afghanistan. Greff was the last Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan when a vehicle filled with explosives hit his bus in 2011.
Creating a cross “helps me be able to process my emotions and my dealings with the event,” Moses said, “and honour a fallen soldier that I knew more personally.”
Cadence Health and Wellness, a mental health service specializing in helping veterans, has put up a display for Veterans Week featuring crosses made by several patients. The crosses bear the names of other veterans who served and passed on, whether in war or afterwards.
Cadence program director Jim Hall said the idea stemmed from a ceremony that GreeneStone, another clinic with a specialized veterans program, did during the height of pandemic. With no formal services able to be held, patients similarly made crosses like these to have their own service.
“It was so beautiful,” Hall said. “We didn’t have a wreath but we had flowers, the poppies row on row.
“It’s not just the people that die in battle,” Hall said. “The battle came back and it became inside them, and it’s trauma and it’s destroying."
Hall recited the line of the famed poem In Flanders Fields about breaking faith with those who die, and said that applies as well to veterans who may die because of their trauma after combat.
“We’ll never forget,” Hall said. “The crosses became very symbolic to us.”
In the time leading up to Remembrance Day, Cadence founder Chris Dupee said it can be a strange time for veterans, as the rest of the world starts talking about something that veterans talk about all year.
“Remembrance Day, Remembrance Week, Remembrance Month, is every day for us,” he said.
Moses served for six years with the military, from 2008 to 2014. He said working with Cadence has helped him a great deal, including reaching an extended period of sobriety.
“I’m completely comfortable with how things are,” Moses said. “I can’t be in a better supported area.”
It is important not to forget, Moses said. As people see the display outside Cadence, Moses said they should consider the sacrifices made.
“Reflect and be grateful for those that chose to help serve and protect us.”