There will be few dry eyes when three generations of a Bay family take part in the 100th-anniversary service in Belgium of the battle to capture the village of Passchendaele.
"All of our family and those privileged to attend will have a heart-wrenching day with few dry eyes," retired Pongakawa farmer Marcus Wilkins told the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday.
Speaking from Belgium the day before New Zealand commemorated the darkest day its post-1840 history, he said the day would begin with a service at Tyne Cot.
It would be followed at 3pm by the opening of the New Zealand Memorial Poppy Garden and then a special tree planting to commemorate everyone who died, including the family's three great uncles. Two were killed in earlier stages of the battle that ran from July to November, 1917.
The emotional climax of the day would be the New Zealand Sunset Ceremony at the Buttes New British Cemetery.