"I Am Always Remembering..."

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, a day to honor soldiers who died in the American Civil War, typically by placing flowers on their graves. The date is thought to have been chosen because flowers would be in bloom across the U.S. After World War I, observances grew to include all fallen American soldiers, and the holiday was renamed. Now it's become synonymous with the "unofficial start of summer," but I remember as a boy, it was very much a day for remembering the dead.

This afternoon, I'll be headed to the cemetery to clean and decorate my parent's graves. Although the day is dedicated to those lost in war, in our family, it was also always a day to visit the graves of our relatives, especially my mother's brothers who had served in WWII along with my father. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of my siblings who still observes this old family tradition, but I do so out of gratitude for the sacrifices of so many including my parents which were made to give us all a better life.

As I said, my father served with valor in the Navy during WWII and he saw action in the Pacific. Today, I'll honor him again with the placing of a flag alongside his flowers. Although my mother wasn't a military veteran, she served the war effort too... She wasn't "Rosie the Riveter" working in a war factory, but instead did work far harder and equally important.

My mother picked cotton on a Mississippi plantation for the duration of the war with my oldest brother and sister who were toddlers riding on top of the sack as she pulled it through the fields. The cotton my mother picked went into everything from uniforms and parachute straps to gauze and bandages and even gunpowder. And so together with Dad, I'll honor Mom with her own flag and flowers as well.

Mother's been gone for 20 years now, she'd be 100 this September. Dad's been on the other side for 13 years and he'd be 106 in November. So, although I was blessed to have my parents for as long as I did, I think of them every day and honor them whenever I can. My children used to go along with me to the cemetery just as I did with my parents, but they are grown now and too busy with their own lives and families. But while I'm there I'll pause a moment to remember when they were younger and I was teaching them that this too is one of our traditions.

Epilogue:

It was a nice visit to the cemetery. There were more families than last year tending their loved ones' graves. As for me, I was a little upset when I first arrived and found that my parent's memorials (headstones) had not been raised and leveled. I'd requested that on my visit on Mother's Day. When I complained at the office though they immediately sent over a groundskeeper who quickly took care of it.