Sad homecoming and due respect

I am sitting in my little apartment in Honiara listening to BBC World News which is on in the other room and my ears prick up when I hear Wootton Bassett mentioned. This is the town we lived in when Laurence was born and a place I kind of think of as 'home'.

Why was it on the news? WB is about 5 miles from RAF Lyneham which is where they fly the bodies of the British servicemen killed in the Afganistan war. The hearses have to drive through the town for the soldiers to be returned to their families. About 2 years ago, the townspeople began to stop going about their business as the hearse passed through. Now it has become an act of civic pride and hundreds and sometimes thousands of people come to line the High Street to pay their respects to those young men who give up their lives for all of us. Businesses close, children come from school, veterans slaute. Yesterday there were more than 4,000 people there because of the 8 young men killed in Afganistan last Friday.

On the TV I see the young, smiling faces of the soldiers who have been killed and think of Laurence and the pain and suffering that their parents and families must be going through. I say - well done Wootton Bassett. You've shown the rest of Britain - and now the world - that people do take the time to show that they care.