Dress made of poppies helps small town mark Remembrance Day during pandemic
Nick Purdon & Leonardo Palleja | CBC News | Posted: November 11, 2020 9:00 AM | Last Updated: November 12, 2020
Hand-made dress of fabric poppies created as a 'labour of love' tribute to veterans
"Remembrance day to me means that I get to live in a country where I'm free. I can get up in the morning and not worry that my children are safe," said Julie Gohm.
Gohm, 59, owns The Original Bug Shirt Company in Powassan, Ont. — a town of fewer than 4,000 people. Usually her company makes mosquito-proof clothing, but since September Gohm and her staff have been working on a special dress made out of poppies.
"This year everything is surrounded by COVID, our whole lifestyle has changed, and I felt that Remembrance Day is not going to be what it always has been," Gohm said.
"We are not going to have the crowds. We are not going to have the services. None of that is going to happen. And so how are people going to reflect?"
So Gohm decided to create the poppy dress as a tribute.
The dress is made of polyester and lycra, and covered with more than 600 hand-made fabric poppies.
From design to completion, it took Gohm and her staff more than 300 hours to finish the unique garment.
"We hand-cut every single poppy," she said. "And even though a lot of us had sore hands at the end of the day, it was a labour of love."
A window to remember
When Gohm and her team finally completed the dress, they installed it in the shop window overlooking Powassan's main street and put it beside a modern-day Royal Canadian Air Force dress uniform.
Gohm says she wasn't sure what to expect, but almost immediately people took notice.
Cally Essery and her granddaughter Kalicee, 6, stopped to look at the dress on their way back from the grocery store.
"I was thinking about how much has changed this year," Essery said. "We can't do the things that we normally do to be thankful and to remember. So this helps."
It isn't just civilians who stop to look at the dress.
Kathy Bilodeau joined Canada's military in 1981 and served for 13 years before a back injury forced her out.
"It's gorgeous," she said. "Makes me want to stand to attention."
Bilodeau's husband served in the Canadian forces as well, as did her father.
"I have a lot of pride in serving my country," she said. "I miss, I miss it, as a veteran you never stop serving your country. Brings a lot of pride.
"So to see this, and to see the respect and the love that went into this beautiful display, it just touches my heart."
'For me it is a tribute to all of them'
Gohm says she has been overwhelmed by the reaction to her dress.
"I think as we age and as younger generations come up, if we don't in our generation continue to share how important Remembrance Day is, it's going to get lost," she said.
And while she wants all veterans to see the dress, she hopes one in particular — her former neighbour Dan Taylor — understands why she did it.
"For Dan to see that another generation cares, and another generation is helping to spread the word of the poppy and of Remembrance Day, I think that's pretty special."
Taylor served with The Royal Canadian Regiment and the Royal Canadian Medical Corps following the Korean War. He also started a war museum in Powassan in 2011.
His grandfather fought in the First World War and was awarded the Military Medal, one of the highest awards for acts of bravery, in August 1916. Three months later he was killed during the Battle of the Somme.
His father served and fought in the Second World War.
"I think of my dad and grandpa, and the thousands of other veterans," Taylor said. "The tears, thousands of tears, in my lifetime, standing with the troops and seeing civilians crying, soldiers crying, just like I do, it's too emotional."
And he's moved by the gesture of the poppy dress.
"The veteran [uniform] and the dress, that's awesome," said Taylor. "With the veteran beside it, it makes it beautiful."
At 11 a.m. on Remembrance Day, Gohm and her staff will spend a few silent moments in front of the dress and pay tribute to Canada's veterans.
The next morning she says she will take the dress down.
Gohm says she plans to donate the dress to a place that represents Canada's veterans, but hasn't decided where just yet.
"I didn't have a dad that was in the war, or a grandpa, so it's not about that. For me it is a tribute to all of them," Gohm said.
"When I first started the dress I thought, 'OK, how many died in the First World War?' Well, you could never make a dress with enough poppies on it. And how sad is that?"
WATCH | Powassan, Ont. honours Remembrance Day with dress made of poppies:
Corrections:
- This story originally noted that the poppy dress is on display beside a modern-day Canadian soldier's uniform. It is being displayed beside a modern-day Royal Canadian Air Force dress uniform. November 11, 2020 2:15 PM