It was a hat just like his dad’s, a special gift from his father’s regiment — the kind given when there are simply no words, least of all for a 5-year-old child.
With its distinctive red-and-white checker pattern, the Glengarry cap was the same type his dad proudly wore with Hamilton’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the one that topped the uniform of 24-year-old Cpl. Nathan Cirillo as he guarded the National War Memorial, the one that would soon be placed on the soldier’s coffin.
And so
Marcus Cirillo, dressed in a child-size suit with a poppy pinned to his lapel, donned the hat just like his dad’s, then bravely marched through Hamilton’s streets as he, and the country now watching, said goodbye Tuesday.
No one who can replace the man described as a “kid at heart,” the person who was not just Marcus’ dad, but his friend, said relative Jenny Holland.
But where Cirillo once found a strong, united family so, too, will his son. Fellow Argylls will step up, assures longtime friend and fellow soldier Ryan Weinberger, one of Cirillo’s pallbearers. They’ll take Marcus to the park, out for dinner. They’ll be there for him.
The regiment family, Weinberger said, “only gets stronger when members pass away.”
“We’re not only family,” said Lt.-Col. Lawrence Hatfield, commanding officer of the Argylls. “We’re a clan.”
After the ceremony, as a hearse prepared to take Cirillo’s body away, Marcus was buckled into the backseat of a nearby car, and the crowd gathered outside the church yelled in through the car’s open window. “We love your dad,” someone said.
Marcus perked up, his eyes peeking over the edge of window, out from under the hat just like his dad’s.
He lifted his hand and waved a small Canadian flag.
