How the Park Came to Be
The inspiration for Veterans Memorial Park began after the parks founder, Dr. Karen Ewing travelled through Belgium and France in 1999. Dr. Ewing and her cousin visited Flanders Field, the Museum at Ypres, Beaumont-Hamel, Vimy, Juno, Dieppe and travelled some of the Trail of the Caribou. They experienced cemeteries, museums and sites in France dedicated to soldiers from their home province of Newfoundland and the many Canadians lost during the WWI and WWII conflicts.
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In France, Dr. Ewing says, “I remember especially on the plains of Douai under Vimy Ridge, you can stand in one cemetery in the middle of farmers fields and see the next cemetery from where you stand.” In these cemeteries there are 200 up to 500 graves in each. There are Newfoundlanders, Canadians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Poles, Christians, Jews, Muslims and others from the First World War and Second World War. Countless souls so far from home, as soldiers were not repatriated then. Many of the lost were under the age of 20. While a lot of the markers have names, others simply say “Known to God”. Some are single graves, some double or triple with gravestones touching – mines and mortars making separation impossible. The epitaphs were heartbreaking,” she states. “Families had the opportunity to write their own. Many said things like…’he died so you could be free’, ‘place a flower there for me’, ‘no one from home will be able to visit my son, please say a prayer over him.’”
They went on to see the huge cemeteries where thousands and tens of thousands lay, the Menin Gate where the sombre sound of The Last Post is still bugled every night and Vimy with the names of men whose bodies had never been found. Upon entering Beaumont Hamel, engraved in bronze is John Oxenham’s ‘Vimy Ridge’. “From the first reading, she states, “I could recite it from memory – and this does not happen for me.” This memory holds such a profound experience for her, you can find the beginning of the poem engraved in granite as you enter Veterans Memorial Park’s Garden of Sorrow.
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“I don’t know what I was expecting but I was not expecting the effect this trip had on me. It was literally unforgettable and permeated life when I returned, and still does to this day. I knew people were beginning to forget the sacrifices made. I knew people needed to see what I had seen…the cemeteries, the trenches, and I also knew many would never have nor take the opportunity. So, I started sketching ideas.”
​“I remember”, she goes on, “trying to figure how whatever was created could be hopeful and not just horrid. So that is where the idea of a bud or flower design with intersecting gardens, weaving the horrors with the remembrance and hope, came to be.”
Endless meetings with local government, interested groups and local citizens ensued over the next seven years. Locations were scouted and numerous “Good luck with that!” comments were endured. Then one day the MLA called Dr. Ewing and said money was available, but the application had to be in by midnight! Frantically the application was submitted just in time and the first Provincial money was awarded. It would be 2007 before the first Remembrance Day service was held. It consisted of a mound of dirt, a Canadian Flag and six people.
Since then and with the unwavering vision and direction of Dr. Ewing, Veterans Memorial Park has grown into a Nationally recognized park with three major intersecting gardens, 14 monuments, numerous trees of recognition for both soldiers of suicide and soldiers lost recently in service and much more. We host three major services yearly with hundreds attending each one.
We are looking toward future park enhancements and continued public events at Veterans Memorial Park reinforcing our mission of Education | Remembrance | Peace.
Dr. Karen Ewing, retired physician, Park founder and recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
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