I hear you Wendell and I shake my head, too.

My grandfather left for England in November 1914 and didn't get back to Canada until late in 1919. He was wounded in early 1915, recovered in hospital and sent back into the front lines. No vacations for them, just 3 or 4 years slogging through muddy trenches, being constantly bombarded and wondering if the next time "up over the top" might be their last.

My father was an RCAF officer from 1934 to 1962 and served in the UK, France and Germany, including a stint until 1946 with the Air Force of Occupation. He was separated from his family for almost 7 years, from the outbreak of war in September 1939 until his return in late 1946. My father-in-law will be 101-years-old in September and has so far survived this pandemic. He was born just after the last great pandemic. He survived the Depression and enlisted in 1940 with the Canadian Army. He is a Normandy vet and spent the last year of the war fighting from northern France through to Germany.

Like so many other WWII vets of the allied nations, they fought through hedgerows, up mountains, in dense jungles, in the air and on the seas. They put their lives on the line and didn't complain because it had been a few months since their last vacation. They are and were members of the Greatest Generation and were aptly named. They put their lives on the line. All we are being asked to do is limit our social contacts.

We hope things will change enough to be able to honour our 5-week booking in St. Maarten in mid-January. We want to come not just for ourselves, but to enjoy and help the people and economy of the island. But at the end of the day it is a vacation. If it is not safe to do so, we can wait. It is not a huge sacrifice.