You are Loved…You are a Brave Man…You are a Good Man– Honouring a Fallen Soldier

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close up shot of red and white flower wreath

I needed to process this.  I needed to have the events that happened on Wednesday morning just settle in and let me process what was happening in our nation’s capital.  Why?  Why, would a young man approach an innocent solider and shoot him?  For no known reason.   Did it not occur to him that he too was a young man? Did he not think that maybe he had a young family?  Why did he not think of the pain that his would cause his family and the family of the fallen soldier?

As the days pass we come to find out that this lone gunman was dealing with mental health issues.  Yet again, a topic that I keep finding myself blogging about.  How is it possible that we failed to see that this man was a danger to others?  The answer to that is beyond the scope of my little blog but it does give me time to pause, time to think and to reflect.  What are the lessons to be learned from these events?  A friend of mine posted on Facebook that she was unsure what to tell her children.  How to explain this senseless act of violence against an authority figure.  How do you explain?

I found my answer after I came back to an interview that I heard on CBC Radio’s As It Happen.  The riveting interview by host Carol Off with Barbara Winters help me show my children what lessons there are in this senseless tragedy.

“You are Loved… You are a Brave Man…Your are a Good Man…” ~ Barbara Winters

These were the words that lawyer, Barbara Winters, said to Corporal Nathan Cirillo after he had been shot as he stood guard over the National War Memorial in Ottawa.  Cpl. Cirillo was a 24 year old single father that had had the honoured of representing his regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders reserve force from Hamilton, Ontario as part of an honour guard at the cenotaph in our nations capital.  Minutes after having taken a picture of the honour guard in front of the memorial, Ms. Winters ran back to assist the fallen soldier as four other people worked together to keep him alive.

In an emotional interview on CBC Radio Ms. Winters spoke words that any parent would want to hear.  “I just want his family to know that we were all there for him.  He did not just bleed on the sidewalk. There were people there touching him. They were with him, talking to him”.  I cried when I heard this interview.  I was in the car with my daughter and she asked why I was crying.  I fought to explain why those words touched me so profoundly.  Was it the loss of young life? Was it the senselessness of the act? Was it the emotion of this event unfolding in Ottawa (where my daughter was going to school just 5 blocks away)?  Soldiers are killed on a daily basis in this world.

No it was not that.

“What it was” I said “is what she said was all anyone ever wants to hear at a moment like that.”  She said what he needed to hear.  What we all needed to remember.  The fallen soldier was loved. He was loved by his family,  by his military family, by his colleagues and strangers that were desperately trying to save his life  This woman helped this dying man by speaking words of kindness, words of love and compassion.  She realized that it was a drastic situation and that he needed to hear words of comfort.

These are the lessons you want your children to take away from such tragic events.  You want them to see that in a world full of crazy, there are people that are selfless and loving and want only to help their fellow man.  It is these lessons that you want to teach:  when someone is down, help them out, when someone is in trouble make them the priority.  “I wanted him to know that we were all there for him” said Ms. Winters. “I tried to speak to him the entire time. I told him he was loved and that he was a brave man that he was a good man.  Think about how proud your family is.  Your family must love you so much.  Your family loves you, your military family loves you… we love you”

As the interview wound down, the interviewer asked why she said those things, those words of love… Simply, frankly and without hesitation Ms. Winters said “I think you tell people when they are sick and when they are ill or they are hurting that they are loved…because EVERYONE IS LOVED by somebody.”

No greater words were spoken.  To you Barbara Winters, I thank you for your humanity. To the first responders, I thank you for your efforts to save this young soldier.  I have taken away a very valuable lessons that I have shared with my children.

Here is the link to interview.  Full credit is given to CBC Radio As It Happens.  I wanted to add it to the blog post because I want you to hear, Ms. Winters in her own words what she said to Corporal Cirillo on that fateful Wednesday morning in October.  Please listen carefully for the message of love from one human being to another.

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Margarita Ibbott is a travel and lifestyle blogger. She blogs about travel in Canada, the United States and Europe giving practical advice through restaurant, hotel and attraction reviews. She writes for DownshiftingPRO.com and other online media outlets.

40 thoughts on “You are Loved…You are a Brave Man…You are a Good Man– Honouring a Fallen Soldier”

  1. Watching TV and seeing all of these tragedies I find one thing strikes me hard, because it always seems to happen. The friends and family of the crazy person never really thought the crazy person would lose it so bad. That stuff always happens to “other” people. If only the crazy or disturbed person understood love, so many tragedies could be avoided. And those who love the crazy person need to realize love isn’t always enough to keep someone from doing something bad.

  2. This was such a sad yet touching post. It’s an important lesson for everyone to learn that all of us are loved even though we may not feel so.

  3. I did not hear about this happening. It’s really sad when people who have mental health issues don’t get the help they need and these things happen. I think we need to work together to improve our nation’s mental health care.

  4. It’s really sad, but Barbara Winters was right in saying this and it’s always been the reason I’ve been a fan of hers… kudos for her comforting. Bringing this to light lets us know that someone is there thinking about you.

    Just a notation: Please don’t allow autoplay. It scared the snot out of me.

  5. Sometimes people just run from the problem because they don’t want to get involved, but that’s not me. Number one I’m nosey and number two I like a good fight, and I care about people especially if there’s children there.

  6. When things like this happens we all try to process it and figure out why. Many times people don’t realize that there are people in the world who love them.

  7. She was right on. I live in a military town and I feel that many who do not experience this, do not understand what these young men and women give up for us. The words of comfort she gave to him was what we all should do! They sacrifice their lives for us to live in this free world, it’s the least we can do.

  8. That was a very sad and tragic event. We often wonder when something like that is going to stop. Beautiful post you made. Yes, all of us are loved. Some people just don’t realize it because their focus is somewhere else, I guess.

  9. Such a beautiful post, I was very saddened when I read how this young soldier was shot dead without provocation (still doesnt warrant killing). It’s sad and a scary thing to imagine later on go through

  10. I was so saddened by this senseless, violent event, but how everyone came to his aid and came together after the fact was so touching. He was most certainly a good man, who was loved, and will be missed.

  11. This is a very encouraging post. I’m sure it comforted his family to know that their son did not die alone. It also lets us know that we need to let those we care about know that they are loved right now.

  12. This was a very sad day. I am sure the family felt some comfort knowing that their son was not alone and was surrounded by people trying to help. It was nice to see all the support on the overpasses all the way to Hamilton when his body was being returned home.

  13. It is horrible when these tragic events happen. I love how Savannah puts it here above “everyone is loved by someone” so true. Losing a loved one is always hard to take

  14. Yet this kind of reaction was nowhere to be found on Monday when two soldiers were run over in Quebec by a similar radical moron. I don’t get it.

  15. Listening to her describe the day that she was enjoying and photographing makes it so chilling how suddenly life can change. It made me so happy that the interviewer was loving and compassionate toward Barbara who also needed some support at this time. Many kind people in the world.

  16. I guess I have been under a rock this past week as I was unaware of this news story! Thank you for bringing it to my attention and providing your thoughts and insights as well as commentary from other people in the media, it is a very thorough and thought provoking pist!

  17. Wow this is such an important lesson to us all. Kudos to Ms. Winters for all she had done for this soldier and for the rest of us who maybe needed a wake up call. Beautiful words spoken and heard. Thanks for sharing.

  18. That’s exactly what I said after I read my good friend Laura’s interview with Barbara. She was a hero and honestly everyone dying at any stage of life in any circumstance needs to hear those words. I don;t know what higher power gave her the strength to know exactly what to do and say in that situation but she did exactly what we all were thinking and trying to simply send out on social media to this young man. But she was there and she said it. That was a profoundly human and beautiful thing to do. This was a shocking tragedy and such a young brave man to begin with. So incredibly sad.

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