It's not quite holiday weather here today, with the warmth of the sun and bright skies and the snap of flags in the sunshine, the smoke of a thousand backyard grills raising delicious scents into the Spring air. There were no sunbeams to wake to, but the damp skies will not dim the services and celebrations of this long Spring weekend.
But weather hasn't much to do with the feelings that surround this special day, this day of remembrance and honoring and taking stock of our nation's blessings. The placing of wreaths, the little flags stuck into the earth of countless graves, the floral tributes, the handful of limp posies clutch-wilted in a child's hand, the tears of remembrance---those will quietly and reverently go on even as the scent of charcoal drifts up and the promised rain comes down.
I have a deep-imprinted vignette in my memory-collection, of sitting there in a hot scratchy dress several years ago, to see my Mother-in-Law receive the folded flag "With the thanks of a Grateful Nation." And so we remember GrandDaddy, in all his twenty-something years of service.
I still have a secret, heartfelt gleam of pride for my own Sailor/Soldier whose twenty six years of service was oddly commemorated with the presentation of the folded flag in our back garden during that strange, closed-in time when the World changed in 2020. We had just rung the big plantation bell seventy-three times to honor the years of Chris' life, in a small moment rather improvised as his Marine Colonel brother presented me the flag after we all took a turn of ringing the bell. That upright, stiff-chinned Marine had bought, ironed, and perfect-folded the flag himself to bring the thirteen hours to our house for the small, important ceremony unwitnessed by anyone save us beneath the trees and our family members on a Face-Time call all over the country.
We'll always be grateful to all the other servicemen and women, and those we'll never know of as we sleep safely on their watch. And just looking at the flowers in the picture above, the two tall, stalwart reds and the smaller, just-as-strong pink, I think of all our sisters and daughters in uniform, especially the one determined young woman who left for training the day after graduation nine years ago with the tiny tremolo of our long-ago bedtime “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” echoing in my heart. I gratefully salute the strong, brave women who step up to the mark, who serve standing proud beside the men whose strength and bravery have stood true for centuries.
We feel a surge of gratitude, of pride, of thankful praise for all the ones who take our well-being and our freedom so seriously that they live and die for it, and us.
And so I say "Thank you," to each and every one, and give a prayer of thanks for all of our service-people, past and present---those standing proud in uniform today, those who have served, no matter what the term, those who have retired from their service, but remain ever soldiers, those lying beneath the brave small flags, and those in unsung graves around the world, known only to the angels and remembered in the hearts of those who loved them.
124 years with two still serving.
Well said!…your sentiments echo mine and I know millions of others.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a gift with words…thoughtful, heartfelt and true….
‘memory-collection’… ‘heartfelt gleam of pride’… ‘unsung graves’… ‘known only to angels’… thanks for the memories. We enjoyed our memory-collection yesterday also. Enjoy the last of May and stay well,
Virginia
Oh, thank you, Virginia!! This has been my memorial day post for quite some years now, same flower (which was blooming on our porch about 2017, I think) and same words, with a few edited as one and another of our family joined or retired. Since I was long out of school when this was made into a Federal holiday, I had had only fleeting childhood moments of going to the old cemetery out at Mammaw's "Home Place" and clearing off the graves in company with a lot of the community on a Saturday in May.
ReplyDeleteI linked that to DECORATION DAY, of my childhood literature, when the Marches would have a picnic at the graveyard. Anything done to celebrate in New England was all right by me. And I now, with the Fort which brought us up here in 1990 "closed down" but for a few uniforms in view now and again, and all us older retirees running into each other at the commissary, we've lost touch with all but a few of our sweet comrades in arms. God Bless Them All.
This was such a wonderful Tribute for all our Servicemen and Servicewomen, those who are still with us and those who have departed and made the ultimate Sacrifice for Country. Those of us from Military Families know how important it all is and we don't take it for granted. Your way with Words painted a poignant picture of it all, Thank You. We have generations of Family who have Served and so many of our Friends also. I was fortunate to travel the World as a Military Dependent. You experience so much more in that Life, so I'm Grateful for it... tho' it is a shame that Humans can't just always live in Peace and evolve enough that War would no longer ever be waged.
ReplyDeleteWords could never cover our admiration and awe and gratitude. I wasn't FROM a "Military Family" except that my Dad joined the Air Force in December, 1941, immediately after Pearl Harbor, and all the rest of his life he complained that he didn't get to leave the country. He spent the whole war stateside, as an airplane mechanic at a Flight School. "I kep' 'em in the air," was his telling of it, for every mechanic had his name in the pot, and one was drawn to "go up" for the check flight after repairs.
ReplyDeleteThank all you family for their faithful service, and tread those Serene, Pure waters of the love you and your family have for each other. I'm so glad I happened in on your life---it's so bright and full and peopled with such beautiful souls.