Memorial Day 2018
Memorial Day, one day of many.
A day set aside to honor those who have left us behind.
Left behind with our memories.
A day we devote to tending gravesites, placing flowers and wreaths in remembrance.
Tears mixed with trembling smiles.
Remembering past joys we once shared.
We remember and honor our loved ones. We take time to remember our fallen soldiers. Soldiers who gave their all for us.
Many gravesites go unattended. Many, like a cemetery in Alaska, high above the Bering Sea – stones broken and leaning. Weeds overgrown. This place haunts my memory – to think they have been forgotten.
But, maybe, their loved ones have traveled on, as well.
Small cemeteries are scattered across our county. Even Civil War sites have been kept as places of honor and remembrance.
What is the condition of other small sites?
Do you have a family plot?
Is it tended or forgotten?
You may have never known these people, yet, they are a part of your history.
The resting place of my late husband’s ancestors is at the Buckskin Scout Reservation. I have searched for the site, but I have not found it.
Hopefully, it is being maintained.
I am grateful to my son, Sam’s, friends who have lovingly cared for his memorial site.
I am no longer able to visit gravesites of loved ones, but I pay them honor by remembering. I was blessed by having a loving family. Not just one family, but in-laws whom I dearly loved.
Life is a journey we each must travel until it comes to an end.
Let us remember those who have gone before us, and let us all journey with God at our side.
