Brisk weather has never swayed people from attending the Remembrance Day ceremony of the Cochrane branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and it was no different this year.

People of all ages overflowed the Community Cenotaph Park onto 5th Ave. and 1st St. W to pay tribute to those who have served so that we can enjoy our freedom.

Emcee Warrant Officer Bradley Ross asked the crowd to reflect upon what Remembrance Day meant to them while he told a few stories from his tours of duty.

One of them took place during his first deployment in Bosnia in 1998, where he came across four generations of a family happily working in their field.

"They all had smiles on their faces, and it didn't matter to them that their house was full of bullet holes. What they cared about was they survived, they were there as a family, and they were able to be there together. This hit me very hard."

Mayor Jeff Genung says he finds Remembrance Day emotional and struggles to find the words for his brief speech.

In the past, he has recited a speech from his great-great-grandfather who had sons on the frontline in World War One. Part of it told of how hopeful those boys were that the people back home knew of the sacrifices and horrors they were going through.

"I want to say thank you to all of those veterans and all of those service people that continue to sacrifice on our behalf so that we can live in such a beautiful community with the freedoms that we enjoy. From my heart, thank you all for being here today and sharing your remembrance."