Veteran Virginia Hicks named 2026 National Silver Cross Mother
She will lay a wreath in Ottawa on Remembrance Day for her daughter, who died in a 2002 training accident.
OTTAWA · The Royal Canadian Legion has named veteran Virginia Hicks the 2026 National Silver Cross Mother. Hicks will place a wreath at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, on behalf of all Canadian mothers who have lost a child in military service. Her daughter, Private Mariebeth Short, died on Sept. 23, 2002 during a training exercise at CFB Petawawa in Ontario. Hicks herself served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 29 years before retiring in 2017. Hicks said she has much in common with all mothers who have lost a child serving in the military. "We all share the same sorrow, we all share the same bravery, and same love and respect for our children as we do for any other child who has passed," she said in a statement. The Legion noted her family has a long history of military service.
How did Mariebeth Short die?
Mariebeth Short, a 22-year-old sapper with the 2 Combat Engineer Regiment, died during a training exercise at CFB Petawawa. She was training in a light armoured vehicle when it rolled over. Hicks says her daughter had passed the wheel to a crew member and was standing with her head above the gunner's hatch when a front tire hit the groove of an old slip trench. The wheel assembly broke off and the vehicle rolled over twice. Short's gear became tangled during the scramble to pull her back inside, and she was declared dead at the scene. An investigation report concluded 18 months later that a substandard weld in the new vehicle caused the accident.
What is Hicks's personal military background?
Virginia Hicks enlisted in 1989 at the age of 30, a mother of four school-aged children. She served for 29 years in supply and logistics, earning the nickname "Mom" from younger recruits at boot camp. She was deployed to the Persian Gulf and served two missions in Afghanistan. Hicks grew up in a military family, with three uncles who fought in the Second World War and a father who was a military firefighter. She had visited Vimy Ridge and Dieppe as a child. "I'm very, very proud to be Canadian," she said. "When you come home, you realize we take everything for granted. And we shouldn't." She and her husband, Brian Hicks, a retired warrant officer, met at CFB Petawawa 35 years ago.
How does she honour her daughter's memory?
Every year on the anniversary of her daughter's death, Hicks and her husband drive three hours to CFB Petawawa. They place red roses in the branches of a maple tree that sprouted on the site of the accident, and two more at a memorial bearing Short's name and picture. Hicks recalls her daughter as a competitive long-distance runner in high school who was "as strong as she was short." Before their annual visit, the couple watches a video mailed to them after the accident, showing Short laughing with fellow soldiers during a test of new bomb suits the year before. "You see the life she had," Hicks said.
With files from The Canadian Press, CityNews and Global News