Granum School student creates Remembrance Day display

By Lawrence Gleason, Local Press Writer

A school Remembrance Day project that received much attention was created by Granum School student Alexis Way, who, with the help from her grandmother, Mary Way, created a detailed tri-fold poster with an accompanying essay, highlighting her family’s wartime history.

The Way family settled in this area, purchasing their farm from an uncle, Leonard Christie MacArthur, a Canadian First World War veteran.

They arrived from Holland, where Alexis’ grandparents had memories of Second World War occupation by Nazi Germany. They ate “grass soup and tulip bulbs,” and, for one meal, and had meat their grandfather did not tell his 16 children was a neigbourhood cat he caught.

“They lived not even 500 yards from the railroad and a lot of them bombs landed on it,” Alexis wrote in her essay. “They were farmers and their house was on one side of the road and their farm on the other so they had to dig a…tunnel under the road to be able to cross over to do farm work at night…hiding the tunnels during the day.”

The trifold is filled with poppies each representing 14 of her family members who served in the Armed Forces, for Canada, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.

For his Second World War service, her Great-Great Uncle Bert Spreeuw, a lieutenant-general, prisoner-of-war, and active in nderground Radio Europe, received a 21-gun salute on his death 11 years after being freed by Canadian troops.

“He received honours from Queen Juliana and could drop in anytime and have tea with her,” Alexis said.

Each hand-made poppy on the trifold poster has a family history. They were made by her dad and her Uncle Mark when they attended Granum School. Her grandmother, Mary Way, provided those poppies for the new family heirloom Alexis has proudly made.

Her trifold was on display at the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Granum School and at the Granum Museum on Nov. 11.