Sisters’ long journey to wall of remembrance

ON a recent trip to the battlefields and cemeteries of World War I in Belgium and France, we brought a group who wished to visit relatives’ graves and memorials.

One marvellous 90-year-old Cork lady (accompanied by her equally marvellous 80-year-old sister) had made her mind up in 1924 to visit her uncle’s memorial. She waited 80 years to fulfil this ambition.

Imagine the emotion when the sisters found the name of their uncle, Private John Lawlor, etched on the wall. No relative had ever before visited his final earthly inscription (he has no known grave).