Before they were married, both of Cathy Forester's parents served in World War II. 

Her father, William John Bain, served in the Royal Canadian Army and her mother, Ada Barber, in the Air Force. Her mother worked primarily in Dafoe, Saskatchewan, while her father served overseas in Europe. 

"My dad joined [the army] in 1939 in Regina, and he left Saskatchewan on the train on Jan. 25, 1940. Until that time I don't believe my dad had been any further from home than Regina. My mom was from Limerick, which is not that far from here, and she joined up in 1943 I think it was. She was a teacher before that."

Forester's mother never left Canada. She worked at the now former Royal Canadian Air Force station near Dafoe stocking parts for just over a year. Both of her siblings, Forester's aunt and unlce, enlisted as well.

Forester's father served five years overseas, mostly in Holland, with the Service Corp. When he was discharged on Sept. 3, 1945, he went back to Canada with seven medals and a letter of thanks signed by King George VI, the King of England at the time. 

"He wasn't really attached to any battalion or anything like that, he would be hauling soup and bridge parts, ammunition, and stuff like that. He also rode a motorcycle for quite a while, carrying messages."

Although never a soldier at the front lines, Forester guesses that her father did face some of the brutalities of war during his time in Holland. She said he shared at least one story that was troubling. 

"He did tell us one time when he was riding a motorcycle that he had gone back to deliver a message. His commanding officers had told him that they would be at this certain point when he was on his way home, but they didn't make it. They didn't advance as far as they thought they would, and he went right through where they were, and he was headed into German territory, and they started shooting at his tires."

She also remembers stories her father told about transporting German prisoners of war out of Holland and back into Germany. 

"He felt very sorry for these young men because they were conscripted and he was a volunteer. And they were just doing what they were told to do. He would take a truck load of prisoners of war back to Germany just to the border between Holland and Germany and say: 'there's home boys, I'm going back for more' and he would go and pick up some more. The people of Holland didn't like the German people, I mean they'd been overrun with them for years, and they were throwing tomatoes and stuff at the trucks. Dad felt really bad for them."

Forester was able to grow up near Swift Current, follow her mother's footsteps in becoming a teacher, live in Meadow Lake most of her adult life, and move to Moose Jaw in 2016, all because her father survived the war.   

"Because my dad, who is my hero, came home to the family farm, I was born."

Last year, Forester, who is an avid quilter, was assigned a project at a group meeting of the Prairie Heart Quilt Guild. She was to create a show piece without buying any new material and adding about five applique objects to the design.

The result was the piece she titled 'In Honour Of,' a Remembrance Day quilt featuring photograph copies, her father's medals, keepsake Remembrance Day poppies, and historical information about her father and mother. 

"I photographed some of the things that my parents had, and I put them through my printer, and it makes a nice picture to go on my quilt, and I put a few things on there. There's medals and the Remembrance Day poppies that are on there were ones that came off of my father's coffin."

Forester said she plans to attend the Moose Jaw Remembrance Day service on Monday. 

"I don't know if I've ever missed a Remembrance day service, ever. I think it's very important. The world is in such a turmoil now and I think of all the work that all those men and women did, and look at what we're dealing with now. I remember watching Remembrance Day services on TV and looking at the Silver Cross [grieving] mothers and thinking 'I wonder how many more there's going to be?' and now we've got a whole bunch more. It's just sad." 

Lest we forget.