The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

The Poppy Lady

The red poppy, or Remembrance Poppy, has been a symbol of lives lost to war since World War I, 1914-1918. Just how did the red poppy come to be such an important symbol that many of us wear on Poppy Day and Memorial Day. It all started with a poem.

In 1915, Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, a Canadian surgeon, saw bright red poppies blooming on the fields where so many soldiers had lost their lives and was inspired to write the poem, “In Flanders Fields.” Moina Michael, who took a leave of absence from her teaching career to sere overseas with the YMCA, read the poem...