IN this, the year that marks 100 years since the end of the First World War, today’s column is dedicated to the older generation.

The centenary of the Great War over the past four years has not been a celebration – nothing so horrific should ever be celebrated. But it has rightly been a commemoration of unimaginable courage, resilience, and also compassion.

Remembrance has taken many forms and, at Hazelgrove Court Care Home, at Salburn, the residents have been playing their part.

Barbara Millikin, Stella Wells, Peggy Bland, Joyce Tibbett and Walter Frost are helping to produce a “curtain of poppies” in which 887,858 knitted blooms will represent every person from the United Kingdom who died serving their country during the war.

Hazelgrove Court’s contribution to the national project will be 500 poppies and, up to now, they’ve completed 460. Once the overall target has been reached, the curtain will form part of an exhibition at the Royal Showground in Wales on April 28 and 29.

While Barbara, Stella, Peggy and Joyce do the knitting, the only fella in the team, 90-year-old Walter Frost, is working on the eye-chords that string the poppies together.

“Oh, I’ve enjoyed it – it’s a nice thing to do, isn’t it?” said Middlesbrough-born Walter.

Walter was a prison officer in the Second World War. He can’t remember where exactly but, even now, he entertains his fellow residents by bursting into German songs he was taught by his prisoners.

“When they surrendered, we gave them something to eat and tried to look after them as best we could until the war was over,” he says. “It was no good just shooting them. They were just like us – scared and hungry.”

It’s testament to Walter’s compassion that, after the war, he was invited to Germany for the wedding of a prisoner called Oswald.

“I couldn’t get the time off work but it was a nice thought, wasn’t it?” said Walter.

IN the midst of the blizzards, I called my mum on Teesside to ask if she was OK.

“I’m fine. I’ve cleared my path, fed the birds and delivered the papers to the old people down the street,” she said, forgetting that she’s 86 herself.

She was in the Land Army as a young girl and lost her brother, Steve, in the war when he was hit by shrapnel from a landmine. A bit of snow’s no big deal.

I proudly Tweeted what she’d said and, up to now, the Tweet has been “liked” by 12,000 people. It never occurred to me that my dear old mum might go viral.

Messages poured on Twitter about how she typifies the spirit of her generation. Here are just a few of my favourites...

  • Anthony Jackson, Darlington: “My dad, Norman, delivered meals on wheels when he retired from working at The Northern Echo. ‘I gave the old dears extra sprouts,’ he once said. He was into his seventies and they were all at least ten years younger.”
  • Martyn Cooper, Huddersfield: “Rang my father-in-law, 95, to ask if he was ok. ‘Fine just cleared the snow off the drive,’ he replied.”
  •  Kathryn Fleming, Canon Pastor of Coventry Cathedral: “Shades of my late great aunt who broke her hip on the eve of my wedding. By the time I returned from honeymoon, she was home, making coffee and cake for the home-help she’d been given due to her age. She was 99 at the time.”
  • KT Thompson: “Like my 88-year-old Dad. He’s walked neighbours’ dogs, cleared paths, fetched papers and visited the housebound."
  • James McMenamin: “I rang my dad in Gateshead at 6.30am to see if he was ok. He was already in the paper shop as he’d ran out of tobacco. Mind you, he’s only 76.”
  • The Turk’s Head, Twickenham: “Brilliant. The father of one of our staff ran the local ‘old people’s forum’ and used to moan that it was full of old people. He was 93!”
  • Anne Harvey, Bolsover: “They don’t make ‘em like that any more! My late Mum, at 97, used to say ‘poor old souls’ when she saw someone less able than her!”
  • Kate Hall, Peterborough: “Your mum’s inspired me to clear our paths – and the neighbours’ too!”
  • Alan Crossley, Teesside: “Sounds like my mum, 89. When asked if she would be better off in sheltered accommodation, she replied ‘no way they’re full of old people’."
  •  Paul Holland, Brentford: “Reminds me of my mother (in her 70s) playing golf with a group of ladies one of whom was in her 80s. The 80-year-old couldn’t stay for a post-game drink because it was her mother’s birthday and she had to prepare for the party!”

ANOTHER story which went viral during the big freeze was about our village postman, Alistair Beadle, a mere spring chicken at 48.

While the country was grinding to a halt, I’d heard that Alistair was out delivering letters in Hurworth-on-Tees – in his shorts.

Determined to get a picture of him, I taped a message to the letterbox: “Dear Mr Postman, please knock if you are wearing your shorts today.”

My wife was quick to point out that he might easily have taken it the wrong way.