Maureen Anderson lost both her sons to their overseas service in the Canadian Army, even if they died years later and a continent away from the hot dust and violence of the Afghanistan war.
Growing up, Ron Anderson was more serious, “a little fighter,” his mother recalls. His younger brother Ryan was quieter, softer. Both joined the military before they finished high school, already certain of what their career paths would be.
Anderson, 78, will be travelling to Ottawa to lay a wreath at the national Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11 as this year's national Silver Cross Mother. The silver cross, also known as the memorial cross, is awarded to mothers or widows of Canadian soldiers who died on active duty or as a result of it.
Anderson herself is the daughter of a Canadian Second World War veteran. Her late husband, Peter, was a soldier, serving with the Regiment of Canadian Guards on Parliament Hill and then the Royal Canadian Regiment. Maureen herself served briefly with the Air Force as a nurse in Ottawa.“That was his life and he loved it,” she said, adding Ryan wasn’t far behind.
Ryan, she said, started to go “really downhill” after his brother’s death. His marriage suffered and he became isolated, sad and withdrawn. He had served in Afghanistan alongside his brother, as well as on several other overseas deployments, including in Bosnia, Ethiopia and Haiti. Since her sons’ diagnoses, Anderson has publicly called for better treatment for veterans with PTSD. She questions whether Ryan was on too many medications, and wonders if veterans might need more talk, check-ins and specialist doctors. In the end, though, she doesn’t have the answers.
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