Memorial Day

By Carol Gee

Today is Memorial Day, a federal holiday for government offices and local schools. Locally, rain is expected. Lots of local cemeteries have planned formal ceremonies to honor those killed in the line of military duty. Nationally, fatal car crashes mar the memorial Day weekend, all according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

The Texas experience of Memorial Day focuses on honoring the military and reflects the norm of marking this holiday nationwide, and it has been my adult experience. As I was growing up in Wyoming, however, our experience of Memorial Day had an additional meaning. It was popularly known as "Decoration Day," the day everybody went to the cemeteries where relatives were buried. We cleaned and cleared the grave sites and decorated the graves of our loved ones with fresh homegrown plants or flowers. Since our family had driven to town from the country for the holiday, we brought along a picnic dinner to eat in the city park. My maternal grandparents were interred in one nearby town, my paternal grandparents another. It varied from year to year in which town we visited.

Last year I posted at Making Good Mondays about Memorial Day, in the context of going home every summer. Today is very bittersweet for me because my 93 year old mother passed away in December. We will be again be traveling to Wyoming this summer, but we will not be visiting the cemetery where Mom's ashes will be buried until later.

So today I celebrate my mom's good life from afar, with this little tribute to "Decoration Day." She taught me about the importance of paying attention to heritage as we visited the graves of her parents and paid our respects. Now my mom and dad's grave site is just a few feet away from the graves of my maternal grandparents. I find that thought fitting and comforting, somehow, as I await our trip.

(Cross posted at Making Good Mondays)