Every year for as long as I can remember, my family has spent Memorial Day Weekend honoring our family and loved ones at the cemetery. Other families would head to the beach, the mountains, or camping. We would spend the weekend at home, remembering those who had gone before us. My only memories of a grandfather are of a headstone and Memorial Days.
My father was an only child, and his father died when he was ten years old, during the war years. It was a hard life for he and his mother alone on the farm. Today, my sister and I spent the day with my mother, arranging and delivering flowers to the cemeteries. It seems an old-fashioned thing to do, yet is is one that we cling to. I hope to be buried in this peaceful and beautiful place of history some day.
It is a bittersweet time to choose flowers from a garden that may pass from our hands some day soon. I hope that whoever tends it in the future will cherish it as we do today.
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- My sister’s Godfather
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- The fir tree over our plot will have to come down soon
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- A neighboring grave, a soldier in Company B, 1st Oregon Cavalry
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- A Close Friend of my Father’s
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- My Grandparents’ Grave
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- My Father’s Grave
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- Two Children lost to Scarlet Fever in the late 1800’s
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- My Great-Grandparent’s Grave
Hi Ruth, I think that’s a beautiful, meaningful way to spend the Memorial Day weekend. The flowers are beautiful. I remember doing that very thing as a girl with my grandmother and mother at my grandfather’s grave. Paul and I spent Mother’s Day at the cemetery visiting the graves of his mother, my mother and my two grandmothers. This was the first Mother’s Day without my mother, I miss her terribly. Thoughtful post Ruth.
Thank you Chris. It is hard to let go, isn’t it?
Ruth, I’m moved by your post. It’s so nice that you and your family remember the real meaning of this holiday.
These kinds of holidays should weigh heaviky on everyone’s memories, but sadly, we have fewer and fewer people who understand that freedom is not free……………because they’ve never know anything else in America ( for which I’m proud)
This is the second year for me to honor my father’s service……without him. He was a good, gentle, caring man…..and I do miss his advise. But I will celebrate his memory and all those who’ve given us the right to.