Hundreds of ‘poppy rocks’ mark over 1,200 Bruce County gravestones of soldiers who went to war and returned. “We cannot forget. We can’t forget the sacrifices that not only the people who served, but also their families made,” said Jan Briggs-McGowan of the Bruce County Genealogical Society. Soldiers like John Dentinger, who saved Clarence Kieffer’s father’s life, on the battlefield. “It’s a great thing that he did, or I wouldn’t be here. It’s an honor to come and pay the respects to him today, and to have the poppy rock there to recognize him as a veteran,” said Clarence Kieffer, a local military historian. John Callahan’s family was proud to lay a poppy rock on his grave near Teeswater. “This means everything. I wouldn’t miss it,” said his son, Tom Callahan. Local school children made and laid poppy rocks for local soldiers and their families as part of the No Stone Left Alone initiative. Briggs-McGowan has spent the past five years researching and laying stones across Bruce County’s 138 cemeteries. “Laying a poppy rock means the next time somebody goes through this cemetery, they’re going to see those poppy rocks and they’re going to remember. They’re going to say, ‘oh, look, there’s another one, there’s another one, there’s another one over there.’ That’s really important we cannot forget,” said Briggs-McGowan. Kieffer says matching up the soldiers’ names and their gravestones is no simple task, but an important one. “Once you get the names listed and find them in the cemetery, that takes considerable time. Cemeteries are not laid out well,” said Kieffer. But that won’t stop Kieffer and Briggs-McGowan and many other committed volunteers in Bruce County from finding the estimated 6,000 Bruce County soldiers who returned from the battlefield and laying a poppy-painted rock at their gravestone. “It’s important for our kids to know who came home, who served, who got married, who has children, who opened the butcher store when they came back, or whatever. Those things are important, too,” said Briggs-McGowan. For the families, the No Stone Left Alone initiative is a sense of closure for those that fought overseas, returned home, and made lives back in Canada. “It’s necessary,” said Tom Callahan.
