This P.E.I. woman crocheted 230 poppies to honour veterans

A woman from Morell, P.E.I., has crocheted hundreds of poppies that are on display at the community's cenotaph for Remembrance Day this week. 

260 red poppies adorn the 16-metre burlap banner at the Morell cenotaph, most of which were crocheted by hand by Barb Deviat. 

"I love poppies and I thought it'd be a nice thing to do for the veterans," said Deviat, a former medic with the Canadian Armed Forces and a member of the Morell-St. Peter's branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. 

"I didn't think I would get this much done, but I actually crocheted 230," she said. 

Another community member crocheted 30 more poppies to add to the banner.

Deviat got the idea to crochet poppies after seeing a similar display at a long-term care home in Dartmouth, N.S., last November. 

"They crocheted all these poppies and put them all on the outside of the nursing home," she said. "I saw it and I thought, 'Well, I'd really like to do something like that, you know, for the veterans.'"

She said the project is also to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Remembrance Day poppy in Canada. 

"It was a labour of love for me."

Deviat served with the forces as a medic for three years before becoming a nurse, and her husband was also in the military.  

She joined in 1967. 

"We were the first Air Force trained in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, on the navy base," she said. "It was quite the experience. I came from a very sheltered family, very sheltered life."

Deviat's father fought in the Second World War, and she's always been drawn to poppies.

"I love that poem by John McCrae, In Flanders Fields, and you can see those poppies waving in the wind," she said. 

"I've always planted the poppy seeds every year and they grew beautifully in my garden and I give those to people too. I just love poppies."

Deviat began crocheting the poppies for the banner in January 2021. 

"Some days I would make, say, ten a day or something," she said. "I could … whip 'em up in about 20 minutes each."

This Nov. 11, she said she will remember veterans' sacrifices. 

"It's amazing what those people have done for us to keep us, to keep our world safe," said Deviat. 

"For the young people to see that, you know, we have to remember these people and keep them in our minds and our hearts."