Dartmouth seniors knit thousands of poppies for Remembrance Day display

Remembrance Day holds a special place in Evelyn Graves’ heart, but the Second World War brings back difficult memories.

“I was a young girl growing up during that time and it was a very hard time,” Graves said.

Even now, into her nineties, some memories are just too painful to recall.

“Remembrance Day is very special,” Graves said.

Graves says she finds solace in sharing the significance of the poppy by being part of a touching tribute -- brought to life literally at her fingertips.

Graves, who lives at Oakwood Terrace Nursing Home in Dartmouth, N.S., is one of several residents who contributed to a Remembrance Day display of more than 6,000 handmade poppies.

“We figure, between my daughter and I, we made about 1,000 [poppies],” Graves said. “My goal was to do two in the morning while I was getting ready for breakfast and two in the evening while I was watching the news.”

Marie George, a volunteer at Oakwood Terrace, has been involved with the project for the last three years.

“We got together in our church, got out a few long tables and the netting and got to work sewing them onto the netting,” George said.

The poppy display project started in 2020, when under lockdown, they started knitting and crocheting poppies.

Inspired by similar tributes across the country, by that November, they had made over 2,000 poppies -- and it only continues to blossom.

“Every poppy we sew on the netting represents someone who gave their life and went to war, stepped up when they were needed,” George said.

Many of the residents at Oakwood Terrace have lived through wartime, including June Arsenault.

“I had four uncles that were in the Second World War and they were all stationed in England at the same time,” Arsenault said.

She recalls the day her brother returned home from the Korean War in 1959.

“I remember sitting on the back door steps on Harley Street In Charlottetown and he came home,” she said. “We all cried because he got home safe.”

The poppy display has been moved several times throughout November for special events, but it can now be seen temporarily at the Dartmouth Cenotaph along Sullivan’s Pond. 

A knitted poppy display is pictured in Sullivan’s Pond Park in Dartmouth, N.S.