Decoration Day

My grandmother always called Memorial Day “Decoration Day”, the original name for the holiday. Decorating graves was always our family tradition. We cut flowers, put them in water-filled buckets and spent the morning in various cemeteries.

My brother and I always wondered off and looked at the old tombstones. We were especially interested in the veterans’ stones, what wars they had served in, what rank they had obtained. What combat had they seen? What terrible memories did they carry?

What sacrifices had they and their families made for our current freedoms? What would they think of what we had done with those freedoms?

That is not something I can answer, but I hope they would feel that the sacrifice was worth it.

May God bless and keep every veteran and comfort those who have lost the ones they loved for our protection.

Photo is of a cemetery in Parsons, Kan., and comes from Flickr.