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Colwood woman creates 100 crochet poppies for 100th anniversary of remembrance symbol

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When Deidre first taught herself to knit she didn’t consider its potential for positivity. It was simply a satisfying pastime.

"You could start something and finish it and you had a product at the end," she says. "I think it’s similar to accounting that way."

But if you were to add together the retired accountant’s most recent projects, you wouldn’t expect the equation to equal more than 100. And yet it has.

"I knew that the 100th anniversary of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance was coming-up," Deidre says.

So in September she opened a spread sheet and started crunching the numbers.

"I came up with the idea that I had to do 1.67 of them a day," Deidre smiles.

After getting permission from the Legion to use the trademarked image, Deidre started crocheting at least 1.67 poppies a day, for 60 days straight, in order to attach 100 of them to the tree in her front yard before Remembrance Day.

"It’s like a marathon," she explains. "You start with enthusiasm and part way through the middle it’s, 'Is this ever going to end?'"

But Deidre knew that no discomfort she felt could remotely compare to what the men and women who’d sacrificed to protect our freedom endured.

"When I decided to do this, I asked my friends and family for [information about relatives] for their own remembrances," Deidre explains.

Next to the tree she covered in the 100 crocheted poppies, Deidre started hanging laminated signs featuring pictures and names of those people who served, and sometimes the stories behind their sacrifice too.

"Everybody who serves should be recognized for that service," Deidre says of veterans past and present.

Like in Flanders Fields where "the poppies blow between the crosses row on row," in Diedre’s Royal Bay neighbourhood, the crocheted poppies bloom high, showing gratitude to all who pass by. 

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