Cold weather and fear of contracting swine flu kept some veterans away from the Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in St. John's on Wednesday.

Until this year, residents of the Caribou Memorial Veterans Pavilion at the Miller Centre traditionally attended the St. John's wreath-laying ceremony and then went to lunch at a local legion hall.

But this fall the pavilion changed its policy.

"Some of the veterans have indicated their discomfort at sitting out in the cold for that length of time, and we've observed these effects, noting that some of them take days to recover after going," said the pavilion's manager, Sharon Nolan.

The average age of the veterans at the pavilion is 85. Nolan said pavilion staff had planned to accommodate any individual veterans who wanted to attend the ceremony this year, but concerns about swine flu changed that, too.

"We thought it wouldn't be wise to bring our veterans out in the community into a crowd of people at the National War Memorial this year," Nolan said, adding that the pavilion held a wreath-laying ceremony and a special lunch Wednesday.

She said staff at the pavilion will accompany any residents who want to go to the ceremony next year.