Monday May 30 is Memorial Day in the United States. It is a day to remember our war dead. I saw on Facebook someone said that they didn’t really have any war dead to remember, so she just remembered her family. I guess I’m in the same boat. After doing some genealogy, I discovered 2 of my ancestors served in the Civil War from Pennsylvania, but both lived long lives. When Memorial Day comes around, I always think of my brother because Memorial Day always feels like the anniversary of his death. Tuesday May 31 is the 10th, so Memorial Day feels like an unfortunate anniversary. My sister died 18 years ago this coming October.
It’s been a sobering few weeks. Kay Ricks, a Utah Transit Authority employee was abducted, taken to Wyoming, and killed a couple of weeks ago. His funeral was yesterday. By all accounts, he was an exceptionally wonderful Christian man who freely helped many in need. I am good friends with an extended family member, and I am sure that this Memorial Day will be an unfortunately sad holiday for them. As I drove by my friend’s house, I saw his wife was outside and stopped to express my condolences. They have a 92 year old neighbor, whom I used to home-teach (before our wards split), and I said “Is he still kicking?”
“He died this morning.”
Talk about sticking your foot in your mouth.
To top it all off, I got call from my mother a week ago. “How’s it going?”
“Not good. Your father passed out twice after church today. I thought he was having a heart attack. He’s at the hospital, and they said he just has an infection.”
Apparently he had a urinary tract infection, and it caused his blood pressure to drop to 70/30. He’s fine now, but it reminded me of my post from 2 years ago, Facing Your Parents Mortality. My dad is 76 now, not in great health, but he is home from the hospital now, and I am quite glad he is one of the 2 of 3 elderly that lived longer than 12 months after a hip fracture.
I used to think of Memorial Day as a nice holiday leading into the summer months. I’m glad my brother’s death is now a decade behind me, and I don’t really tear up like I used to, but I know that two families are hurting right now due to loss of loved ones. We may go to the Lagoon Amusement Park to keep things on a happier note, but my heart goes out to the families who are grieving at this time.
What are your Memorial Day plans?
Wheat & Tares 
We don’t have memorial day in May, though we do have Remembrance Day in 11 November, with Remembrance Sunday being the closest Sunday, and where the nation observes 2 minutes silence both the 11th and the Sunday. I also don’t know of any war dead in my family tree.
For us this year it will be Fathers’ Day in June that will be sobering, my father-in-law having died last Christmas day, and my own father just 7 weeks ago.
I attended my small town Memorial Day celebration. Although we’re only 25 miles from Minneapolis, our town pre-dates the Civil War and retains a sense of unique community. The ceremony had everything you’d expect: music by community band, speech by the mayor, laying of wreaths at the Veterans Memorial, and a keynote by an acquaintance of mine, a retired LtCol of Marines who flew in the Pacific in WWII and flew support at the Frozen Chosin in Korea. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Legion, an Army Reserve color guard, and that service music medley where the vets all stand at their branch’s anthem. Very satisfying.
My town is the home of the First Volunteer of the Civil War – the first man to enlist in the first regiment tendered to President Lincoln for service after Fort Sumter in 1861. We take our Memorial Day pretty seriously here, and I was glad to see young people at the ceremony and afterwards in the cemetery.
Hedge, our Memorial Day was instituted after our Civil War (1861-65) to commemorate the dead. November 11 is Veteran’s Day in the US (Armistice Day until after WWII), which honors surviving vets.
As I told a couple of people today, “Thank me in November. Today is for those who didn’t make it home.”
Thanks for the thoughts.