Remembrance And Hope

A single photograph can carry the weight of a nation’s heart. On Remembrance Day, we revisit the moment a five-year-old boy reached for his father marching to war in New Westminster, a split-second captured by photographer Claude Detloff that became “Wait for Me, Daddy.” We share the story behind the frame, the road that led Jack Bernard from training to Juno Beach and through France, and the unexpected path that turned his son, Whitey, into a face of Canada’s victory bond efforts. Then we bring the narrative full circle with the long-awaited reunion, a second image that transforms separation into joy and reminds us that ache does not get the final word.
Along the way, we talk about what these paired images teach us now—how fear and uncertainty can harden into a false “new normal,” and how faith interrupts that drift. We reflect on the limits of our perspective, the pitfalls of placing hope in shifting headlines or political soundbites, and the steadier ground found in God’s goodness. The conversation moves from public memory and military history to the interior life: how to carry gratitude for those who serve, how to honor sacrifice without romanticizing war, and how to live with open hands when the future blurs at the edges.
If you’re feeling the weight of the unknown, this story offers a different posture—clear-eyed about pain, anchored in hope, and ready for the frame that comes after the hard moment. Join us for a focused, heartfelt reflection that blends Canadian history, family courage, and spiritual grounding. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a quick review to help others find these five-minute mornings.

Here is the link to the photo.  I encourage you to check it out. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wait_for_Me,_Daddy#/media/File:British_Columbia_Regiment_1940.jpg

Chapters

• 0:10 Welcome And Morning Setup
• 0:34 Remembrance Day Context
• 0:59 The Iconic Photo’s Origins
• 2:54 Reunion And Emotional Contrast
• 3:57 From Anxiety To Hope In God
• 5:34 Closing And Invitation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Today is November the 11th, and here in Canada we set this day aside, calling it Remembrance Day, so that we can pay honor to all of our military who have served and those especially who have passed away defending our country and fighting for our freedoms. I am honored to be able to thank everyone who has ever served our country in the military and has done it with such valor and such dignity. Thank you to all the members of our armed services. Our story today ties into the military service. It is about one of the most famous photographs in Canadian history. It's been memorialized with a monument built to it. There's been a special coin from the Canadian mint made for it. There's even a stamp from Canada Post that's been printed to remember this photograph. It all began back on october first, nineteen forty, on the corner of Eighth and Columbia Street in New Westminster, just outside of Vancouver. A regiment of soldiers were marching south down eighth street headed for the ship Princess Joan, which was going to take them over to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island for further training. Friends and family members lined the streets, waving and cheering, and many of them with tears in their eyes. None of them knew if they were ever going to see these men alive again. They knew that the war in Europe had to be stopped, and that these men had answered the call. One of these brave men was Jack Bernard, and two of the people who were lining the street that day were Jack's wife Bernice and his five year old son Warren, whom everybody just called Whitey. As Jack marched down the street to war, rifle in hand, he heard a voice cry out Wait for me, Daddy. Watching his father march off to war had become too much for Whitey, and breaking free of his mother's grasp, he ran towards his father, and at that moment, a photographer for the Vancouver Province newspaper named Claude Detloff took his one and only photo that day. One and only because in nineteen forty his camera only had film for one picture. The picture he took captured that heartbreaking moment of a family that was being torn apart by war, of a father and son reaching out for each other, neither of them knowing if they were going to see each other ever again. Within weeks that photo was shown around the world, including in Life magazine. In the five years immediately after that photo was taken, Jack was promoted to sergeant, he was assigned to an armor regiment, and he took part in the D-Day invasion, landing on Juneau Beach and fighting his way through France from there. Whitey was also busy. Due to the fame of that photo, he became part of the drive to sell victory bonds, working with the likes of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and other famous radio personalities. Then one day in 1945, Whitey was taken to the train station by his grandfather. Jack had come home. If you were to take those two photos and set them side by side, on one side you have the one where father and son are being separated, and you see the anguish in their faces. On the other, you see the overwhelming joy and excitement of Daddy's home. It was no longer wait for me, Daddy, it was Daddy's home. You can see the stark contrast of those two events five years apart. For many of us, if someone took our picture on a normal day right now, we would probably look a lot like Whitey did in that first photo. We would be full of fear and anxiety, the uncertainty of it all. The unknown future that lies ahead of us would cause deep frowns and it creates a tremendous weight that people carry around on their emotional shoulders. We can let ourselves fall into the trap of thinking that the bad things around us are the new normal. The truth though is that we don't see the whole picture. We only see our current situation, we only see this moment that we are in. And God really does have more in store for us than what we can see for ourselves. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I will see it. Our hope cannot be in what we're seeing around us right now. It certainly cannot be in the politicians. It cannot even be really in the medical experts because they keep changing their minds and we don't get a handle on this even from what they are saying. That's not where our hope is. Our hope is not in people. Our hope is in the Lord. Don't let the weight and burdens of the present drag you down into the depths of despair. Know that in Christ, in our Lord and Savior, there is always hope. So hang on to that hope. Be blessed, my friends. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.