V

Five years, from 1940 to 1945, the Netherlands were under German occupation. Five dozen years later, my uncle, my father and my mother travelled back to many of the places liberated by my uncle's unit, part of the 12th Manitoba Dragoons. Another five years and my mother has returned with my brother and his wife, bringing yet another generation into the circle of remembrance. My uncle and father, both veterans of a war whose legacy continues to resonate today, are no longer with us.

But the example they set is. The generation that suffered and rebuilt from the losses of those years found cause for gratefulness, joy in the good we have knowing how easily it could disappear. How easily it could all slip away, as those who liberated the once-occupied countries now slip away. Yet it's the joy that dominates, not the fear of loss; the fulfilment of the line from Joel on which the padre of my uncle's regiment preached at the close of the war: "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten ... You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you."

Five years, and all is not as it seems: Joy becomes sorrow, oppression gives way to liberation. My own five years: Its successes and disappointments, promises made and broken, my uncle and father lost, a new generation rising at the feet of my nieces and nephews. The victory the Netherlands celebrates this week is one we can all share; it speaks to our deepest hopes, for lost years to be repaid, for emptiness to be made full, for some cause for praise: That we have been given the opportunity, and are free to embrace it.