Every year, Virginia Hicks places red roses in the branches of a lonely maple tree growing on the Mattawa Plains at CFB Petawawa in Ontario.
asserted
Hicks → place → Ontario
The tree marks the place where her daughter, 22-year-old Private Mariebeth Short, died in 2002 during a training exercise while serving as a sapper in the 2 Combat Engineer Regiment.
asserted
daughter → mark → Regiment
Mrs. Hicks remembers seeing the little sapling, randomly sprouting in the grass when she visited the site the day after the accident.
asserted
she → remember → accident
Now bushy and tall, the maple is waiting there every Sept. 23, when she returns with flowers and memories.
asserted
she → wait → flowers
This year, Royal Canadian Legion chose Mrs. Hicks, a veteran herself, to be Canada’s Silver Cross Mother.
asserted
Legion → choose → Hicks
On Remembrance Day, the retired sergeant from Trenton, Ont., will lay a wreath at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
asserted
sergeant → lay → Ottawa
She will kneel there for a moment, she says, and think about her daughter and what she might have accomplished.
uncertain
she → kneel → what
She’ll think about all the military families, past and present, grieving sons and daughters.
asserted
She → think → sons
This year, the ceremony will happen less than a month after four soldiers died and dozens were critically injured in a devastating fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta, during a training exercise that also went terribly wrong.
asserted
that → happen → exercise
Sapper Short was always challenging herself, her mother recalls.
asserted
mother → challenge → herself
In high school, she was a competitive long-distance runner – despite standing under five-feet-tall and weighing less than 100 pounds.
asserted
she → stand → pounds
“She was as strong as she was short,” Mrs. Hicks says.
asserted
Hicks → say → ?
She had just completed a month of training on the light armoured vehicle at her first posting at CFB Petawawa when she called her mother and Brian Hicks, her stepfather, in Halifax.
asserted
she → complete → Halifax
She was excited that she was about to drive the vehicle for the first time.
asserted
she → drive → time
“You realize this is a very big piece of equipment,” warned Mr. Hicks, a warrant officer in a construction engineering unit.
asserted
Hicks → realize → unit
“Yes, yes, Warrant, I’ll be careful,” Sapper Short promised.
asserted
Short → promise → ?
She sounded so happy, Mrs. Hicks, 69, recalls.
asserted
Hicks → sound → ?
Despite the cautions on their phone call, she was saving her worry for when her daughter soon deployed to either Afghanistan or Bosnia.
asserted
daughter → save → Afghanistan
Wearing a uniform came with risks, as Mrs. Hicks well knew.
asserted
Hicks → wear → risks
She grew up hearing about her three uncles who fought in the Second World War.
asserted
who → grow → War
Her father was a military firefighter, often posted overseas.
asserted
father → post → ?
By the age of 11, Mrs. Hicks had walked among the crosses at Vimy Ridge and stood on the beach at Dieppe.
asserted
Hicks → walk → Dieppe
During one posting, her family lived in Lamorteau, a Belgian village near the French border, in a house still pockmarked with bullet holes from the Nazi invasion.
asserted
family → live → invasion
In 1989, she travelled from her home in Moose Jaw, Sask., to sign up at the recruiting office in Regina – a five-foot-tall, 30-year-old mother with four school-aged children.
asserted
she → travel → children
She wanted to serve her country.
asserted
She → want → country
“I’m very, very proud to be Canadian,” she says.
asserted
she → ’m → ?
“When you come home, you realize we take everything for granted.
asserted
we → come → everything
At boot camp, the much-younger recruits nicknamed her “Mom.”
asserted
recruits → nickname → her
She helped them sew labels on their uniforms, and traded ironing for boot polishing.
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them → help → polishing
When she woke every morning, sore and tired, she’d tell herself: “Shut up.
asserted
she → wake → herself
You wanted this.
asserted
You → want → this
She was assigned to logistics, co-ordinating supplies.
asserted
She → assign → supplies
When she was deployed to the Persian Gulf, and her then-husband objected, she arrived for training at CFB Petawawa a single mother.
asserted
she → deploy → Petawawa
By the time she retired in 2017, she’d also served two missions to Afghanistan.
asserted
she → retire → Afghanistan
When Sapper Short announced, a year after graduating high school that she wanted to enlist as well, her mother and stepfather made certain she was serious.
asserted
she → announce → school
And when she decided to become a combat engineer – a front-line role responsible for building and demolishing roads and bridges to move troops forward and hold the enemy back – they were candid about the difficulties she could face, including resentment from male soldiers who might assume she wasn’t strong enough.
uncertain
she → decide → soldiers
Mr. Hicks warned her that, as the smallest person in her crew, she’d likely be sent into the tightest spots and might spend a lot of time standing up to her neck in cold water.
uncertain
she → warn → water
Her mother recalls the defiant reply: “Oh, for God’s sake.
asserted
mother → recall → sake
I brought the form home for you guys to look at, but this is what I want to do.”
asserted
I → bring → what
Nothing is guaranteed once you put on the uniform, Mrs. Hicks says.
asserted
Hicks → guarantee → uniform
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
