Last updated 09:18, Friday, 07 November 2008

The families and friends of those killed in war have Remembrance Monday, Tuesday and every day.

For the loved ones, the remembering never ends. The pain of separation may ease, or it may not. But the image of a face and the sound of a voice are never far away.

For them Remembrance Sunday hopefully gives a sense that they are not alone. Millions of strangers are thinking of them, of all those who died in war and all who feel the loss most keenly.

In Cumbria this year the day will carry an added poignancy. The recent deaths in Afghanistan of Private Charles David Murray and Corporal Sarah Bryant brought home the fact that Remembrance Sunday is not only about sacrifices made by people from distant places in distant times.

Young men and women in 21st century Cumbria are giving their lives in the name of their country.

No one who joined up in recent years can have been in any doubt about the dangers they were likely to face. The very least that those who made the ultimate sacrifice deserve is a period of reflection.

Organisers of Carlisle’s Remembrance Day parade are hoping for a large turnout, including veterans and servicemen and women on leave.

Everyone else will remember in whatever way they choose. Sarah Bryant’s father Des Feely will lay a wreath at the war memorial in Carlisle.

Sarah’s mother Maureen Feely will be in Wetheral by her daughter’s grave, at the church where they were often together on Remembrance Sundays past.

The thoughts and feelings flooding through Cumbria on Sunday will outnumber even the county’s fallen.

Memories of loved ones lost, expressed in raw grief and warm pride.

Issues about the military’s role and how its men and women are served by politicians.

It is right that we remember the past, while hoping for a future in which war exists only in history books.