Memorial Day and Memories

Full of memories.  Thoughts of my father at the last Memorial Day ceremony we were at together. Here he is...I suppose it was 2007 because in 2008 he died just before Memorial Day.

 

This year Owen had planned the trip to the cemetery to honor Grandpa.  We had flags, one for Grandpa, and one for Grandpa Blackie.  We had flowers for the vases on my parents' headstone (mostly herbs but my father loved that lemon balm so it was fitting) and on the way Owen drew some pictures, an American flag and a US Navy ship, to leave for Grandpa. 

When we got there we realized there was going to be a ceremony in about 15 minutes.  I had looked in the paper but couldn't find the listing so decided to forget about it but there we were....perfect timing.  So we put the flags and pictures and flowers in place and then wandered over to the center of the cemetery.  A school band raggedly played patriotic songs, veterans spoke, schoolchildren read some poems, a train went past drowning it all out and the clouds got darker and darker.  The gun salute was loud and then two members of the band played Taps.  Owen hugged me because he knew I was really sad.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The night before Memorial Day we had dinner with friends and Bob mentioned that although it was many decades later, his father had died from the war.  And I understood.  And he talked about how his mother calls family every year and asks them to put flowers on her husband's grave and tells them that she will send a check.  And every year they tell her that of course they'd already put flowers on his grave and of course she doesn't need to send a check.  It made me smile.

One of the great worries of my father as he slowly sunk into Alzheimer's was that nobody would be left to pray for the men of his sister ship.  The whole ship went down and he never stopped mourning them.  So I said a prayer yesterday....for my Dad and for all those men.