Decoration Day

Was what my grandmother always called May 30th. Not Memorial Day as did everyone else. But, then, of course, it is no longer on May 30th but rather the 4th Monday in May so that it can be a 3 day weekend.

Instead of honoring our fallen heroes, the day is spent boating and picnicing and BBQing.

But as a child, Memorial Day was a family day when my family would go over to my grandmother's after we visited the cemetery and placed flowers on my other grandmother's grave and Miss Mamie's grave.

There we would have a noon dinner, then load the trunk of the car with fresh flowers -- peonies, iris and the most beautiful red roses. All placed carefully in coffee cans filled with water.

And off we would go to cemeteries far and near. At each stop, we would carefully make a bouquet of flowers from the stash in the trunk and respectfully place it on the grave of the departed loved one.

The cemetery far was where my great great grandmother was buried and my grandmother always told the story of how when she died, there was no money for a headstone. Instead a tree marks the spot where she is buried. I loved the story and wish now that I had asked my grandmother to tell more stories of this amazing lady. But, alas, a child doesn't think of those things.


Tomorrow our National Cemetery will have a ceremony to honor all those buried there. Not just the fallen heroes but the others who served their country and were fortunate enough to come home.

And at 3 p.m. tomorrow, our time, we shall observe the National Moment of Remembrance, by pausing in whatever we are doing for a moment of silence.

Our family has been fortunate for all of our soldiers came home.

And this weekend, we shall decorate the graves of both our soldier ancestors as well as our other ancestors.