“Memorial Day is for Remembering.”

It’s not just about barbecues and family get togethers. It’s not about opening up the pool for the season or heading to the hills with the camper. It’s about remembering those who have gone before us. Flags are placed on the graves of veterans. Graves are spruced up and flowers are laid. And we remember.

My mom is buried on the far end there. She has purple flowers. Purple was her favorite color. Just ask anyone who knew her. It went so well with her perfectly white hair. Her headstone has my brother’s name engraved beside hers. The next headstone is my Uncle Bob’s. He lived at home all his life. He had a bad stutter and the kids at school made fun of him so Grandma kept him home to work the farm. He was strong as an ox and had the gentle heart of a lamb. His job every week was to ring the church bell to gather the worshipers at the little white church house on the hill. His headstone is engraved with “Mgr. of the Bell”. He was an angel unawares.

Grandma then Pop-Pop come next. Then Uncle Sonny who was killed in a plane crash in Germany in 1955. He was an Air Force Pilot. He was the light of everyone’s life and the light dimmed greatly for this family when he left us. Even though I don’t remember him, the stories I’ve heard all my life make me feel like I knew him.

Tucked between the two far headstones is a small tuft of Mr. Virgo’s silver hair that I buried when I moved here. Even though he is buried overlooking the house we shared in Colorado, I wanted a piece of him here in the family cemetery where I could visit him. One of my friends lives just a stone’s throw from Mr. Virgo’s final resting place overlooking the golf course we used to play. I texted her yesterday and asked her, yet again, if she could leave a handful of wildflowers on his grave for me this weekend. I know he will get his flag, but I wanted him to have flowers, too. Jeanne told me that even though she never met him when he was living, she feels a kinship with him. She speaks to him every day when she walks through the graves on her way to the hiking trail in the hills beyond. She is always happy to lay a lilac or a peony with a whispered hello from me. She told me she found a glow in the dark golf ball and set it on her kitchen sink. She’s going to take that along as well. He’ll love that!

Here’s a salute to all the men and women who gave of themselves to serve our country. Here’s to those who soldiered on at home while their loved ones were gone. And here’s to the Gold Star parents whose child gave their all, most often on foreign soil, far removed from any comfort they may have provided. That loss weighed so heavy on my grandma. She always pictured that maybe, if she were there, she could have at least been there in his final moments, even though he was killed instantly. A mother thinks these things.

As you celebrate the first grand weekend of summer…please, remember. ??❤??

“Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭27:3-5‬ ‭NIV‬‬