VISITING MY GREAT GRANDFATHERS WARGRAVE IN BURMER/MYANMAR

The entire reason myself and my father decided to go on a journey to Thailand and Burma (MYANMAR) was to visit the grave of my great grandfather, who was killed at the hands of the Japanese in WW2.

After seeing sections of the Thailand rail, we drew closer to our goal of getting to the cemetery at Thanbyuzayat, and on the day of visiting we were welcomed by the curator of the cemetery who did an excellent job of keeping the resting soldiers comfortable. A place of heavy emotion as I imagine many places with over 3000 soldiers laid to rest would be, I couldn’t help but notice the varying ages of many men, some as young as 16, others into their 40s all answered the call and paid the ultimate price.

For over 10 years Dad had explained the importance of getting to Myanmar and visiting the grave of Thomas Lovick my great great grandfather, who unfortunately had never had any visitors since 1945, we laid 3 poppies for each generation since his and spent some time looking over his fallen comrades, all who look after each other now.

A poem stuck with me which was inscripted on one of the gravestone “ Sunsets pass and shadows fall, but love and rememberance outlives all”